Police investigating suspicious fires in the Navy housing area on the Pearl City Peninsula found a spray-painted message that implied the fires were deliberately set and would continue.

Police questioned a 12-year-old boy in connection with suspicious fires that damaged homes and cars in a Navy housing complex and a nearby brush fire on the Pearl City Peninsula over the weekend.

Officers patrolling the area saw the boy near the scene of the fires early Monday morning. Police said the boy ran when officers approached him.

He was questioned and released to his parents.

Police are asking for the public’s help in locating witnesses or suspects to the fires.

Police said on Saturday at about 5:04 a.m., a vehicle parked in a carport on Ashley Avenue in Navy housing was set on fire. That’s where investigators found the spray-painted message.

The other suspicious fires occurred on Sunday.

At 3:26 a.m. another vehicle parked in a four-unit housing complex,about a block away Lowella Street, was set on fire The fire burned the vehicle, damaged a second vehicle, and caused major damage to the home. Three adjoining units sustained smoke and water damage, said Agnes Tauyan, Navy spokeswoman.

Eleven people — a family of four, a family of thee and two families of two — were affected, Tauyan said.

At 8:53 a.m., officers discovered several gas cans and burnt wooden torches lying on the driveway near a vehicle a thousand feet away from the scene of the fire five hours earlier. Police said the suspect apparently tried to light the gasoline, but was unsuccessful.  

Twelve hours later at 3:17 p.m., officers and firefighters responded to a report of a fire in an open field.  Anyone with information is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300, or *CRIME on cellular phones served by AT&T, Nextel Hawaii, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless Hawaii,  Mobi PCS, and Hawaiian Telcom.