Several fires kept local fire departments and car storage lot owners up late Wednesday night.

There have been seven fires in car storage lots in Ames and the surrounding area since Sunday night, said Ames Fire Chief Clint Petersen. Six of those blazes occurred Wednesday night and into early Thursday morning. All are classified as “suspicious,” though officials don’t know what caused the fires or if they were spread by chemicals.

The fires have brought together an investigative team made up of members of the Ames Fire Department, Ames Police Department, the Story County Sheriff, the Boone County Sheriff and the Iowa Fire Marshal.

Although there were two people seen near one of the fires, Ames Police Chief Loras Jaeger said there are no solid leads or suspects at this time.

The police and sheriff’s offices would not yet call the fires anything more than suspicious.

Petersen, however, said, “I’m going to jump out and call it an arson fire.”

He said his reasoning is based on the timing and proximity of the fires.

The total cost of damage to vehicles is not yet known, Petersen said. The cars damaged range in price from $50 for scrap metal to the cost of an “almost new” car, he said.

The first blaze on Wednesday night was in McCallsburg, about 21 miles northeast of Ames. Richard Thompson, owner of Thompson Auto Parts, reported the blaze in his salvage yard at about 8 p.m. His lot was the least isolated — he lives across the street.

Thompson estimates of the 400 to 500 cars in his yard, 200 or more were damaged by the fire. “They were stacked up pretty high,” he said.

In fighting the blaze, the McCallsburg Fire Department and the surrounding communities departments that assisted, emptied the water tower to the point that McCallsburg had to cancel school on Thursday for lack of water, Petersen said.

“It was a significant event for this community,” he said.

Butch Hansen, owner of Butch’s Amoco, 100 E. Lincoln Way, said he woke to a phone call at about 4 a.m.

His storage lot off East Lincoln Way houses the cars towed and impounded for the city, along with cars stored for other reasons such as being totaled in accidents.

The vehicles damaged were in a corner and along the fence away from the road.

“We’re still trying to determine what the vehicles were there for,” he said.

Hansen has contacted his insurance company, but doesn’t yet know what will become of the damaged cars. “Hopefully they get caught, and they can deal with it,” he said.

Of preparing for such incidents, Hansen said, “What can you do? Do you come out here and stay all night? You feel pretty helpless.”

Kyle Clark, manager of Bud’s Service Center in Boone, declined to comment.

Thursday morning’s incident is not the first arson case for Butch’s. Petersen said nine cars were set on fire on Sunday night.

No vehicles towed by Iowa State’s Department of Public Safety Parking Division were affected in the fires, said Marcia Clendenen, day-shift supervisor for parking officers.

Decker’s Petro Palace, 821 Lincoln Way, has the contract with DPS for towing. “It didn’t hit this lot, so we’re fine,” Clendenen said.

Larry Eastman, the manager for Decker’s, said he had a long night even though his lots were unaffected by the fires.

“Almost all of the storage lots [in Ames] are in the same area,” he said. “I was out there from about 3 this morning until I opened the station at 5 [a.m.],” he said.

Until things get back to normal, Eastman plans to be cautious.

“We will put what cars we can in our station,” he said.

Decker’s can only hold three cars. Other than the isolated storage lot, they have no other place to put cars.

Decker’s does plan on patrolling the lot more than usual. “We’re usually out there several times during the night,” Eastman said.