Sixty-four-year-old John McQuown of Waianae was sleeping Sunday afternoon in his home in Waianae when he was roused by a loud noise.

“I heard a loud bang,” he said. “I assumed it was a car accident.”

He went outside when a man at the Hele gas station across from his house on Farrington Highway yelled that smoke was emanating from the side of McQuown’s home.

He ran into his home and saw smoke and then flames ignite in his son’s bedroom. “I told the guy, ‘I need help, I need help!’” McQuown said. The good Samaritan rushed to his aid to extinguish the blaze.

The case is among a string of arson cases that occurred Sunday in Waianae. No injuries were reported. Police say the cases are possibly related.

“I’m pretty shook up about what happened,” McQuown said. “This is the reason why Waianae gets a bad rap, because of idiots like this.”

A home surveillance video captured the suspect throwing what appeared to be a Molotov cocktail at the window at about 1:30 p.m.

McQuown thanked the good Samaritan, whose first name is William, for his quick response when he ran across the highway and extinguished the fire with a garden hose.

Just after 2:45 p.m. Sunday, police and firefighters responded to the 86-100 block of McArthur Street. Police said a 56-year-old man reported a male suspect threw a Molotov cocktail at his residence. The blaze was quickly extinguished.

About two hours later a 34-year-old man entered a 55-year-old woman’s residence on the 86-900 block of Moelima Street and allegedly set fire to a sink cabinet. The blaze was extinguished before firefighters arrived.

The suspect in each of the arson cases fled before police arrived.

Each case has been classified as first-degree arson, a Class A felony that carries penalties of up to 20 years in prison. Police arrested a 34-year-old man Monday in connection with two of the three arson cases Sunday.

McQuown said the past four weeks have been rough. He has lived at his home for 25 years and never experienced any problems until the holiday season, when a thief or thieves burglarized his house twice and took presents for his children and grandchildren.

Sunday’s arson case caused more emotional pain for McQuown. “It’s really disheartening, to say the least,” he said.

During an interview Monday with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, neighbors stopped by to check on him.

Police, meanwhile, are continuing their investigation into Friday’s arson case where a suspect threw a Molotov cocktail through a glass door at a business at Waianae Mall.

Owner Megale Cole of HI Royalty Records was in his office and recalled hearing a crackling noise shortly before 3 a.m. Police said a suspect threw the incendiary device through the door, causing a fire.

Cole, 46, attempted to extinguish the fire by using his Army gear before the flames activated the sprinkler system, which doused the fire. A computer and Army basic-training portrait of himself were among the items damaged by the blaze and the water from the sprinklers.

Police said it’s not yet known whether Friday’s arson case is related to any of the arson cases that occurred Sunday.