NEW YORK — Police are investigating a fifth attack on a Long Island home hit by a Molotov cocktail Sunday night to see if it is linked to the four similar attacks in Queens, according to the Daily News.

The four arson attacks that occurred over two hours Sunday night are believed to be possible hate crimes against Muslims. The attacks were made using homemade firebombs.

The first firebomb hit a bodega, which had minimum inside damage; the second firebomb hit a private home. The fire caused a great fire but no one was hurt. It took more than 60 firefighters about 40 minutes to bring it under control, according to the New York Times.

The third attack was on an Islamic center called the Imam Al-Khoei Foundation, a prominent Shiite mosque. The door was blackened but the building did not catch fire. No one was hurt.

A surveillance video shoes the fourth attack, which involved a private home where Hindu services are held.

According to police, the Molotov cocktails used in three of the attacks were made with Starbucks bottles.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo issued a statement condemning the attacks.

“Attacks such as this have no place in our open and inclusive society,” Cuomo said, “and we must do all we can to ensure New York remains a safe and tolerant place for all.

SAN FRANCISCO — The cause of a three-alarm fire on Masonic Ave. in San Francisco is still unknown as police continue to investigate.

NBC Bay Area reports that police are treating the fire as a crime scene until they determine the fire’s cause, as the initial emergency call reporting the blaze was made by a screaming woman.

The fire began on January 1 at 8:10 P.M. and put out at about 9:05 P.M. at 1358-1359 Masonic Ave., according to the San Francisco Examiner. The fire displaced ten residents as it damaged three buildings, according to CBS San Francisco. According to Police Sergeant Daryl Fong, one resident was injured and was transported to the Davies Medical Center with unspecified injuries, along with one victim who was treated with shortness of breath.

According to KTVU, residents around Masonic Ave. say that the building occupied by the landlord on the ground floor and two couples, who live on the second and third floors respectively. Individuals who were displaced due to the blaze are staying at the Police Park Station or at a nearby residence, Sergeant Fong states.

A Chelsea woman was held without bail after her arraignment on murder and arson charges in the wake of the Christmas Eve house fire that killed a 20-year-old living in another apartment in the house.

Melissa Pfeiffer, 26, and her boyfriend lived at 265 Spruce St., in a lower level apartment. The fire killed Crystal Lynn Blanchard and seriously injured her boyfriend, who were trapped in a unit above the blaze.

“In the evening of Dec. 24, the defendant and her boyfriend became involved in an argument,” Assistant District Attorney Mark Lee said. “Generally speaking, it was over money. The argument ended at about 10:00 or 10:30 p.m. and the boyfriend left the building.”

Pfeiffer’s boyfriend returned to the building at about 11:00 and saw Pfeiffer leaving the building, Lee said.

A short time later, a group of people driving by saw flames coming from the building and called 911.

Lee said that Blanchard and her boyfriend were trapped by smoke and flames on the building’s second floor. The boyfriend suffered serious burns before finally jumping from a window and further injuring himself.

“Miss Blanchard was unable to get out of the building,” Lee said. “She subsequently died of her injuries.”

Lee said that two witnesses cam forward and reported that Pfeiffer had admitted to setting her boyfriend’s clothes on fire.

Pfeiffer was held without bail.

State Police attached to Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office and Chelsea Police detectives yesterday arrested a Chelsea woman in connection with the fatal Christmas Eve fire in Chelsea.

Melissa Pfeiffer, 26, will be arraigned today in Chelsea District Court, charged with arson and murder in setting the fire that killed 20-year-old Crystal Lynn BLanchard.

Pfeiffer was taken into custody at Chelsea Police headquarters, officials said.

“The charges arise out of Blanchard’s death and injuries to a 33-year-old male after Pfeiffer allegedly set a fire inside her residence at 295 Spruce St. at about 11:00 p.m. on December 24,” said Jake Wark, a spokesman for Conley. “That residence was a five-unit apartment building; Pfeiffer lived on the ground floor and the victims lived on the second floor.”

No details were released, and authorities did not comment on a motive. More details will be announced at arraignment.

Fire investigators announced Thursday that the August 17, 2010 fire that damaged Taunton CIty Hall was arson.

“This is an ongoing criminal investigation by State Police assigned to the Office of the State Fire Marshal, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Taunton Fire Department and the Taunton Police Department,” said State Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan, in a statement.

The fire started in an attic record storage area and caused an estimated $8.3 million in damage.

“This was a significant fire that caused severe disruption to the city’s ability to provide service to its citizens,” said Taunton Fire Chief Timothy J. Bradshaw.

“Investigators have known the cause of the fire for some time but in order to protect certain aspects of the ongoing criminal investigation state and federal investigators asked us to withhold that information until now,” said Police Chief Edward Walsh.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives Denver Field Division Special Agent in Charge Marvin Richardson, together with Mayor Rick Kaysen, Cheyenne, Wyo. Fire Chief Jim Martin and Police Chief Brian Kozak, announced Thursday that a September 15 blaze at the Hitching Post Inn, a Cheyenne hotel, was inentially set.

No additional details on the fire, how it was set or why it was set were released by authorities, who said the investigation is ongoing.

“Local ATF special agents will continue to work in partnership on the investigation with the Cheyenne Police and Fire Departments until the individual or individuals responsible for this cowardly act are brought to justice” said Richardson.

ATF developed the NRT to assist federal, state, and local investigators in meeting the challenges faced at the scenes of significant arson and explosives incidents. The NRT consists of three teams organized geographically to cover the United States. Each team can respond within 24 hours to assist state and local law enforcement/fire service personnel in onsite investigations.

ATF is the federal agency with jurisdiction for investigating major fires and crimes of arson.

Police have made an arrest in at least one of the fires set during a December 27 arson spree that left an elderly man and his son dead.

According to the Associated Press, Massachusetts Northwest District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel said in a statement that 25-year-old Anthony P. Baye was arrested at about 8 p.m. yesterday, and he will be arraigned today in Northampton District Court on charges or arson, armed burglary, and two counts of murder.

Scheibel’s office did not say if Baye would face charges connected to the other fires set during the early morning hours in what a state fire official called the worst day of arson in memory.

ATF fire engineers put out a fire after the testing is completed. (Media credit/Courtesy of the ATF)

How do you investigate fire? By burning something, of course.

Arson is one of the hardest crimes to solve. It’s often easy to prove that a fire was deliberately set, but solving the crime is another matter.

That’s where the forensic techniques applied at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive Fire Research Laboratory come into play. According to the ATF, arsonists around the country are being caught every week thanks to the science at work here.

When two people were killed in an overnight arsonist’s rampage in Northampton, the ATF was called in, and the bureau is currently using its cutting edge forensics in an attempt to solve this brutal spate of crime in a small Massachusetts town.

“Progressive fire crime scene analysis, state-of-the-art technology and analytical fire investigative tools are used to determine an arsonist’s means, timeline and opportunity,” said Eric Pe±a, senior special agent and certified fire investigator (CFI) programs manager for the ATF’s fire lab.

One of the fire lab’s biggest tasks is to reconstruct the actual scenes of fires. In a controlled environment on its 35-acres in Ammendale, Md., the ATF will burn rooms, buildings, cars and anything else it needs to destroy in order to solve crime.

Investigators build a scale model of a crime scene with scale props like furniture and fixtures placed exactly as they appeared in, say, a house fire. A full-scale structure is also built to test fire theories.

Last year the lab did 184 test burns for criminal investigations. It can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months to set up and conduct an investigative burn depending on the size and scope of the burn.

The smallest fire tests involves candles or fuel spills. The largest, the ATF says, involve three-story buildings up to 60 feet long that are used to investigate fires in apartment complex, hotels, stores and even churches.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Boston Field Division, announced Wednesday that they are offering $5,000 added to the existing $5,000 reward set up by an insurance organization for the arrest of a suspect or suspects responsible for three suspicious Jamaica Plain fires.

According to the ATF, a Feb. 7 fire at 22 Sigourney Street has been ruled an arson. Investigators are reviewing surveillance video obtained from that incident. They are trying to piece together clues that could indicate that fire is related to a Jan. 6 fire on South Street and a Jan. 28 fire on School Street. All three fires were ruled arsons and have “investigative similarities.’

Anyone with information about any of the arson incidents or the identity of the suspect is asked to contact the Arson Hotline at 617 343-3324. Anonymous tips can be placed at 1 800-494-TIPS or text the word “TIP” to CRIME (27463).