The four-alarm blaze that had 80 firefighters battling a burning apartment building under construction in Oakland early Friday was an instant reminder of three other nearby fires that have hit the East Bay in the past 12 months.

No cause has been announced in the fire near Lake Merritt early Friday. But investigators will certainly be looking at curious similarities between this latest blaze and the fires in May and last July that gutted another apartment building, this one just two miles away in Emeryville. The fire was also strikingly similar to a fire at a construction site at 317-319 Lester Ave. in Oakland, just across the lake from Friday’s blaze.

Here’s a look at those three suspicious incidents:

The July 6, 2016 Fire

Developer Rick Holliday was awoken at 5:45 a.m. the morning of July 6 by a phone call from fellow developer, John Protopappas, telling him that his building under construction on San Pablo Avenue at Adeline Street near the Oakland border was going up in flames.

“Emeryville: ‘Sheets of flames’ in massive 6-alarm fire that gutted apartment under construction,” said the headline in this newspaper that day.

The apartment building, called The Intersection, was designed to include rehabilitation of the historic Maz Building at the juncture of three major routes: Adeline Street, MacArthur Boulevard and San Pablo Avenue. The development was planned for 105 units and 25,000 square feet of commercial space.

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An estimated 100 firefighters responded to the blaze, which began about 2:45 a.m. No injuries were reported and, at first, no cause was announced. But some in the community speculated that it may have been the work of an arsonist angry about the rapid and dramatic gentrification of sections of the East Bay, where long-time residents are being forced from their neighborhoods by rising rents.

After the blaze, Holliday installed a dozen surveillance cameras and hired a security company to position two armed guards outside the property. He also noticed that the fire had started inside an unfinished stairwell which “acts like a chimney.” That first blaze broke out when the project was at its most vulnerable stage, he said, meaning it was about 60 to 65 percent complete with the wood frame exposed, but before the flame-resistant sheet rock was added.

The Oct. 31, 2016 Fire

A five-alarm fire ripped through an apartment building under construction on Lester Avenue in the early morning hours of Halloween last year, sending flames more than 30 feet into the air.

Fire crews were called to the scene just after 5 a.m. that morning and arrived to discover the five-story, 41-apartment building engulfed in flames.

The property was being developed by Athan Magganas, and his company, Adelphos, LLC, and still had scaffolding on all four sides of the building. Flying embers and falling scaffolding had firefighters evacuating adjacent buildings, with between 100 and 200 residents told to seek shelter elsewhere. No major injuries were reported at the time, but two people were displaced when scaffolding fell on their duplex.

Authorities at the time estimated the blaze caused roughly $1 million in damage. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, along with the National Explosives Task Force and Oakland Fire Department, all sent personnel to investigate the suspicious blaze.

The May 13, 2017 Fire

Related Articles Suspect sought in huge Emeryville arson fire

Huge fire erupts at Oakland construction site

Copycat? Second East Bay fire started in same spot inside building, developer says The five-story structure on San Pablo Avenue was destroyed once again by a fire that started about 4:58 a.m. Flames could be seen for miles and the heat was so intense it buckled metal scaffolding and damaged a construction crane to the point it partially collapsed. Embers from the fire carried for several blocks, sparking one house blaze as well as some small brush fires.

No one was reported injured in the fire, which brought about 100 firefighters from Alameda County and Oakland to the scene and was not officially brought under control for several hours.

This time, unlike with the last fire, a man was seen riding a bicycle onto the construction site shortly before the blaze was called in to 911. That man was being sought as a possible suspect, authorities said at the time. At a news conference at police headquarters, investigators released video images of the man, who was also carrying a backpack, and offered up to $100,000 in reward money — $50,000 each from authorities and the developer.

Authorities did not say if the suspect they are seeking is connected to the July 2016 blaze, but they did confirm that both Emeryville fires were the work of an arsonist. ATF Bureau Chief Jill Snyder said of the May 13 fire, “This is an act of arson, and it needs to be stopped.”

Like the first fire, this one started in the same stairwell, said Holliday. And like the blaze in 2016, this fire erupted when the building was at 50 percent completion.

“It’s almost a copycat fire,” Holliday said. “Where it started, the intensity, when it started in terms of time of day, the most vulnerable time for the building. It looks like someone who really knows how a fire works.”

He vowed to build a third time at the site.

Staff writer Erin Baldassari contributed to this report.