(Photo via the Washington Blade)
Freddie’s Beach Bar & Restaurant, a gay establishment in the Crystal City section of Arlington, Va., was one of at least three restaurants to be hit with small fires on the same block between 5-5:30 a.m. on Jan 9.
Freddie Lutz, owner of Freddie’s, told the Washington Blade someone set the front door of his bar and restaurant on fire during that time on Jan. 9. The door was partially blackened by the flames, but the restaurant itself did not catch fire, Lutz said.
He said two nearby bars and restaurants on the 500 block of South 23rd Street were also hit with small fires around that same time. They were the Crystal City Sports Pub and McNamara’s Pub and Restaurant.
According to Lutz, the small fire at Freddie’s took place the day before and the day after Freddie’s received a threatening phone call from what sounded like the same unidentified male caller.
“He said I’m going to fuck you up and I’m going to fuck the women up,” Lutz said the person told Freddie’s manager, who answered the two calls.
Lutz said the fact that the calls came just before and just after the fire was set on his front door, prompted him to speculate that the caller could be the same person who started the fire.
He said the two calls came from two different phone numbers, which Lutz gave to police who arrived on the scene with an Arlington Fire Department official to investigate the three fires.
A statement released Jan. 9 by the Arlington Fire Department says the department initially responded at about 5:30 a.m. to a reported fire at 529 S. 23rd Street, which is the location of the Crystal City Sports Pub. The statement says firefighters found a fire in an enclosed patio at the restaurant that was “contained” by a sprinkler system and was extinguished by firefighters.
“The preliminary investigation conducted by the Office of the Fire Marshall determined the fire to be suspicious in nature,” the statement says. “During the investigation, additional fire damage was discovered to adjacent businesses,” it says. “These fires are also being investigated and are deemed suspicious in nature.”
Capt. Nathaniel Hiner, a Fire Department spokesperson, told the Washington Blade in an email on Jan. 10 the fires have now been designated as arson.
The Jan. 9 statement did not mention Freddie’s, or one of the other two restaurants hit by a small fire at that time, McNamara’s Pub and Restaurant, which is located two doors away from Freddie’s. But Lutz said a deputy fire marshal who spoke with him said each of the three fires was being investigated.
Lutz said someone attempted to set the rear metal door of McNamara’s on fire, which blackened part of that red-colored door.
“I have a feeling that we got targeted because we are a gay bar,” Lutz told the Blade. “I just have that feeling.”
But he said he told a police officer who stopped by Freddie’s in response to the fire that it may not be a hate crime “because they hit the other two restaurants. And he said it could be possible that they were targeting me because I’m a gay bar.”
“The Office of the Fire Marshall is asking anyone with additional information to contact Lieutenant Wandekha Kanthula at 751-357-0769 or wkanthula@arlingtonva.us,” the fire department says.
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