Cars Set Afire on Several Harlem Streets The day began like any other for Oral Walker: he left his apartment in Harlem on Tuesday morning to take his daughter to school, and from there planned to continue on to work. But he got no farther than the sidewalk, stopped by the sight of his family's new car, destroyed by fire. Mr. Walker phoned his pregnant wife, who ran downstairs. "It's a total shock," his wife, Sherise Budhai-Walker said, sitting in the couple's walk-up apartment, her belly swollen, two weeks shy of her due date. We got a new car for the baby, and now it's a total loss. It's just sad that someone would do that. Their charred white Range Rover sat by Jackie Robinson Park on Edgecombe Avenue near 150th Street with a police officer standing guard. It was one of about 10 cars set on fire on Tuesday in Harlem. The damaged vehicles included a dark convertible Ford Mustang, a green Scion and a dull-red minivan. Police and fire officials said the investigation was continuing, and no motive has been established. Most of the cars were set afire in the darkness of early morning, the blazes reported between 3:24 a.m. and 5:03 a.m., a Fire Department spokesman, James Long, said. The last car was set afire a little after noon. Mr. Long did not say how the fires were set or whether an accelerant was used. The vehicles were on quiet blocks along Edgecombe and Bradhurst Avenues and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard, between 142nd and 155th Streets, Mr. Long said. Some cars smoldered and were perhaps salvageable. Others were destroyed. "I hope they find the person that did this and don't let them off easy," said Pamela Crowell, waiting for the burned-out green Scion that she shared with her son to be towed. "All this damage," she said, her lips pursed. They had just bought the car in June, Ms. Crowell said, adding that her son worked overtime at his hospital job to be able to afford it. "You work hard, and you save to get something, and someone snatches it from you - that quick," she said, snapping her fingers. It hurts. My son wanted it and he worked for it. That's the worst part of it all. The car was not insured against fire. Some of the cars were the equivalent of bystanders. A police officer said the wind carried the fire from the Range Rover to a gold Nissan Pathfinder parked in front of it. A grayish Honda near the burned-out Mustang seemed to suffer the same fate. The Honda's owner, Ayodele Maakheru, looked through one of its shattered windows, his face tight with frustration. "I feel angry, I feel violated," Mr. Maakheru, 52, said as he moved around the car, its hood bent and rear window blown out by the fire, as he stuffed personal items into a backpack. He said he had just turned the corner, headed to run some errands, when he saw the chaos. The police told him his car would probably still run. But as he grabbed an umbrella from the back seat, he reasoned, "Why chance it." Carlos Rodriguez considered himself lucky. His red minivan was burned, but the fire did not do much damage. The top of a front tire was melted and the metal above it charred. "In the beginning, I was mad," said Mr. Rodriguez, 53, a building superintendent who lives on West 149th Street. "Now I go see all the other cars...." he said, listing the casualties by their model names. But this, he said, pointing to the damage on his van, would be covered by his insurance.