Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 24, 1995 TAG: 9505240104
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A rash of fires - many deliberately set - in Roanoke's older neighborhoods has strained the resources of the Fire Department and led officials to ask residents to keep a close watch on vacant buildings for signs of potential firebugs.
Including the blazes that destroyed First Baptist Church in Gainsboro on April 22 and the Claytor Memorial Clinic on Saturday, there have been seven confirmed cases of arson in the past five weeks at mostly unoccupied buildings.
Six other fires since May 13, including one that destroyed a vacant warehouse on the edge of downtown Monday night, have been classified as "suspicious," and many of them may ultimately be determined to be arsons once lab analyses are complete.
The fires have claimed one life - 40-year-old Brenda Ann Davis, who died during a suspected arson at 369 Washington Ave. S.W. on May 13. No one has been injured at any of the other blazes.
"The Fire Department, the Police Department and the building commissioner's office are working on this issue together," said Director of Public Safety George "Chip" Snead.
"And we think it's particularly important for the community to be as observant as they can be and [call] 911 ... if they see suspicious activities in their travels around the city," he said.
The First Baptist Church fire in Gainsboro was solved with the arrest of two juveniles, one of whom lives in the neighborhood.
All the other fires are under investigation. While fire and police sleuths have no proof that the others are connected, they also have no evidence that rules out that possibility, Snead said.
Ellen Fuller, who owns two of the buildings that recently burned, said a fire official told her that he suspects the fires are the work of an arsonist who is "just going around and setting fire randomly."
A city detective who has been an arson investigator for 20 years says it's not unusual for fires to occur in clusters.
"One series of well-publicized fires can precipitate the setting of other fires, particularly by young people," Detective Alvin Dudley said. The excitement of watching the fire they set blaze away - and the sense of control they feel over the firefighters - "creates the experience for them."
To lend more manpower to the arson investigations, Roanoke police have solicited the help of a regional task force composed of detectives from the city, Roanoke County and the state police. The team was established last year to pool information on criminal cases in the valley.
In the meantime, all city police officers are being asked to pay close attention to vacant homes and buildings.
Patrol officers are being asked to report any unsecured vacant building to the city building commissioner. And during their daily rounds, building inspectors are making sure that boarded up structures are secured so potential arsonists can't get in.
Because there were relatively few fires in the first quarter of the year, the total number of building fires this year isn't far out of line with previous years, said Acting Fire Chief Billy Southhall.
Fire officials categorize as "suspicious" any blaze for which a cause is not immediately apparent. After further investigation, some of those usually are ruled arson, while others may be determined to be accidents. Some never are solved.
In 1994, the Fire Department investigated 84 blazes, Southhall said. Of those, 38 were officially determined to be arsons.
The number of confirmed arsons in Roanoke dropped from 69 in 1991 to 67 in 1992 and 57 in 1993, according to the state police Uniform Crime Section.
Including those in the past month, 40 fires have been investigated this year, and 16 are confirmed arsons. That number may go up depending on the results of lab tests, Southhall said.
But the timing of the blazes is unprecedented, he said.
"Any time you have this many fires [this close together] it naturally taxes not only your men, but your equipment," Southhall said. "The men are pretty tired. The equipment is getting pretty well beat."
The Fire Department also is expanding a smoke-detector giveaway program for homes in older neighborhoods that don't already have the devices.
Michelle Bono, a city spokeswoman, said residents can pick up smoke detectors for free at certain fire houses.
"The intent is to give them out to people who can't afford them," she said.
Nationally, Virginia ranks near the middle of the 50 states in terms of the number of arsons annually, said Rick Gilman, executive director of the Insurance Committee for Arson Control, a national, nonprofit insurance industry trade association.
Roughly 12 percent of fires throughout the state are determined to be arsons. The list is topped by Washington, D.C., where 30 percent of fires are intentionally set. South Dakota, where 6 percent of fires are intentional, ranks the lowest, Gilman said.
The risk for arson typically increases in neighborhoods where there are a large number of vacant buildings, he said.
Gilman said he doubts the recent fires would have enough impact to cause underwriters to begin raising insurance rates. That most often happens after long periods that show definite upward trends in the the number of fires.
Gilman also said city officials are fighting an uphill battle, although the public awareness campaign is a good idea.
"The difficulty with arson is it's really hard to prevent. The way to stop it is to find the perpetrator or perpetrators," Gilman said.
Staff writers Lisa Applegate, Diane Struzzi and Mary Bishop contributed information to this story.
by CNB