Neighbors told police they saw people set fire to beer cans before throwing them into the home, which was quickly engulfed in flames.

David Myers, who lives three houses down from the burned home, said he was watching a movie at about 11:40 p.m. when he saw a person in a black hooded sweatshirt sprint away from the house. Myers looked more closely and spotted flame inside one of the rooms.

He woke up his next-door neighbor, Kris Hanners, and the two hosed down the grass, the houses nearby and the cars parked along the street.

Police wouldn’t release the names of the victims of the fire, because they think the residents could be connected to the stabbing of a 27-year-old man Friday on Central Avenue, less than a mile from the burned house.

Police investigators suspect the fire might have been retaliation related to the stabbing.

The wounded man, whose name was not released by police, was reportedly stabbed in the back and legs by three other men and taken to Sutter Tracy Community Hospital, where he was treated and released.

He’s refused to talk to police, according to city spokesman Matt Robinson.

Police tracked the license plate numbers of the three men back to Livermore. The Livermore Police Department told Tracy police the men were affiliated with gangs, Robinson said.

He said police do not want to say why they think the stabbing and fire are connected, for fear of revealing evidence.

Investigators are also looking at a possible attempted arson Sunday, that one on the 400 block of Seventh Street, just a block away. Remnants of Molotov cocktails were found near the home, which didn’t catch fire.

According to neighbors, 10 people lived in the house on West Eighth Street, and strangers would often come and go.

Myers, who’s owned his home on the same street for five years, said he never had direct problems with the residents in the house, but many people in the neighborhood didn’t like them.

Cars stopped by the home repeatedly, and for a while, the house didn’t have doors or glass in the windows, only blankets to cover the openings. Graffiti that represents the Norteño gang is marked on part of the fence. Neighbors said it’s been there for about two weeks.

"It makes perfect sense," Myers said of the possibility of a gang-related fire. "When I moved in, I’ve heard that there are a few houses that are involved in gangs."

Tracy fire Division Chief Andy Kellogg said one of the neighboring residents gave him seven names of people in the home. The department’s arson investigators are trying to sort rumors from fact, he said.

The residents were given four days’ worth of American Red Cross hotel and food vouchers. Police are waiting to question one resident who received second-degree burns and is being treated at U.C. Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.

Police are also in search of witnesses to any of the crimes.

"Right now, we have very little information," Robinson said. "Gang problems is what brought people from the Bay Area to Tracy. If you don’t want it take root here, you need take ownership and step up."