
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 8, 1993                   TAG: 9312080157
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

TEEN CHARGED WITH ARSON

A 15-year-old boy has been charged with arson in connection with one of four suspicious fires in the vicinity of 11th Street Southwest during the past two weeks.

Roanoke police acknowledged Tuesday that juvenile petitions were obtained for the teen-ager late last week.

Specifically, he was charged with arson in connection with a Nov. 25 fire that destroyed a vacant house in the 1000 block of Patterson Avenue. He was also charged with threatening to burn a house in the 1100 block of Chapman Avenue.

Since two days before Thanksgiving, six fires have been reported in the neighborhood.

Fire officials say at least four of them were set.

The arrest came after authorities received information about the alleged arson, Assistant Fire Marshal David Deck said.

Even with the arrest, the investigation of two other suspicious fires is continuing.

On Nov. 26, a shed full of building supplies on Richmond Avenue went up in flames. Fire officials said there was no apparent reason for the shed to burn.

Four days later, firefighters found a burning pillow stuffed beneath a staircase of a vacant house at 517 11th St.

Fire officials said there was no reason for the pillow to burn, unless someone set it on fire. The area around the burning pillow was free of debris, making spontaneous combustion unlikely.

Early Saturday, a vacant house in the 900 block of Rorer Avenue burned. Fire investigators said the blazed started under a first-floor stairway.

by CNB