As the officers of the Amherst Police Department were questioning Travis Consolo, a student at the University of Massachusetts, about why he was lingering around a dumpster at Hobert Lane, the dumpster erupted into flames.

He was promptly arrested on charges of setting fire to private personal property, according to MassLive.com. The 21-year-old student from Hanson, was arrested

Around 12:30 a.m., soon after police approached Consolo. They had spotted him, along with two others, acting suspiciously around the dumpster, according to officers quoted by MassLive.com.

Saturday morning’s fire was not the first to occur in this very dumpster,  Sgt. David Knightly, a detective with the Amherst Police Department, told MassLive that Knightly said police and fire officials have been keeping a close eye on the dumpster since it has been “subject to a recent rash of fires.”

Fire Chief W. Tim Nelson said the fire department and police have been looking into this string of fires for some time.

“We have been chasing that down for awhile,” said Nelson on MassLive. “Generally, [the fires have] been late at night on the weekends or early in the morning.”

According to Nelson, 29 fires have occurred in that particular dumpster over the past 12 months.

The crime of setting fire to a dumpster in the early hours of the morning, Knightly said, is often perceived as a victimless crime. However, he told MassLive this perception is incorrect. Even if it does not directly harm anyone, he said, it could have extremely negative consequences.

“[The crime is] something like that pulls our firefighters and crews out of service for an hour,” Nelson said. Nelson added that responding to a set of dumpster fires could prevent firefighters from arriving at the scene of a life-threatening emergency on time, which could have many negative consequences.

-Collegian News Staff