VENICE, Fla. (WFLA) — The Venice Police Department is investigating multiple fires that happened Sunday as a possible arson.

Donna Hughes had just arrived at the Venice Pier on Sunday night with a friend when they soon noticed a problem.

“We had gone down to the beach to watch the sunset and we heard some of the kids yelling ‘fire’,” Hughes said.

They looked up to see smoke.

“We turned around and heavy, black, billowy smoke was coming across the dunes and then the Venice police were coming down the ramp and they were asking everyone to evacuate the beach,” said Hughes.

Her friend, Lynn Smoles says the fire was moving quickly.

“All of a sudden it just filled the sky and I turned to Donna and I said ‘fire’ and then the next thing we know, we had just sat down, the cops came and told us to evacuate the beach and we had to get out right away,” Smoles said.

The Venice Fire Department moved quickly to contain the fire, but others broke out. The Venice Police Department said there were fires near the Venice Pier, Venetian Waterway Park Trail near MarineMax and the Lake Venice Golf Course.

There is no damage to the Lake Venice Golf Club, but General Manager Rod Parry can’t understand why someone would intentionally set so many fires.

“The police, the two fire departments I heard, and all of the local police – even the county was all over this,” Perry said. “Hopefully if it was an individual, in fact if it was, that they get this place because we’ve had a hell of a week with the storm and we don’t need a second problem coming.”

The Venice Police Department said they briefly detained someone for questioning regarding the fires Sunday night, but soon released that person. No arrests in connection with the fires has been made, but police say they are actively working leads in the case.

“I just can’t believe that somebody would deliberately light the beautiful paradise that we live in on fire,” Donna Hughes said.