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Charges are pending as of Saturday afternoon as police continue to investigate, EPS spokeswoman Carolin Maran said in an email.

The two men who responded to the slew of arsons — characterized online as “Hawaiian shirt guy” and “2×4 guy” — were able to diffuse the situation and control the man in the coffee shop until police arrived.

‘This is better than nothing’

2×4 guy, or Jeff Halaby as he is more commonly known, was inside his new restaurant Spotlight Cabaret around 9 p.m. for a pre-opening menu tasting when an employee saw the man lighting vehicles on fire.

“I was so scared that one of those cars was going to explode because it was right in front of the restaurants across the street,” he said.

Not wasting a beat, Halaby said he ran down the stairs to go outside, but then stopped to see if there was something in the newly-renovated venue that could be of use.

“I thought, well I can’t go out there without anything in my hand,” he said. “I found a four-foot piece of baseboard and thought well, this is better than nothing. I ran across the street to cut him off because I didn’t want him to continue walking closer to Whyte Avenue.”

And thus 2×4 guy was born. But Halaby said he doesn’t see himself as a hero.

“I don’t feel like I was any kind of hero. I feel like there was a lot of people on Whyte Avenue yesterday who had the same instinct that I did,” he said. “I just kept thinking this guy can blow up a car. That’s all that was in my head.”