ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 24, 1996 TAG: 9601240065
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN STAFF WRITER
Fire broke out in the rear of a two-story house in the 800 block of Patterson Avenue Southwest on Tuesday night, while the owner slept inside.
James Glass, 26, wasn't injured and sat in front of his house while firefighters finished soaking the back porch. The fire, which started shortly after 11 p.m., did not spread inside. But with smoke and water damage, Glass is probably facing $4,000 in total damages.
With District Fire Chief Bev Mitchell describing the fire as "very suspicious," Glass said he was happy to be alive but angry that someone - who he thinks lives in the neighborhood - may have set his house on fire. The fire means more work for Glass and his partner, Chris Ross, as they convert the house into a duplex.
Glass and other neighbors say they are fed up with the recent rash of fires in the neighborhood.
Mitchell said he has responded to four suspicious fires there in the last three weeks, but indicated that there have been more. Most of the houses involved were vacant.
"One night I was going to one fire and passed another fire on the way," before it had been called in, he said.
Tuesday night's fire apparently changes things, though, because Mitchell said he doesn't recall anyone being inside the other houses.
He said the fire at Glass and Ross' house started under the back porch.
A neighbor said she heard an explosion while watching a TV news report about a recent fire in Southeast Roanoke.
"We've got firebug in this neighborhood. We're afraid to sleep at night," said Gloria Stinnett, who has lived across from Glass for 14 years. "These old houses would go up like straw."
Tammy Goad, Stinnett's daughter, said there have been three fires in the neighborhood since she moved to nearby Campbell Avenue on Friday.
"Every night, it's a fire."
Mitchell said the neighborhood's best defense is smoke detectors. "If I didn't have a smoke detector in my house, I would certainly install one."
Glass, who owns Glass Motor Works, said he hopes police step up their investigation of the fires now that he could have lost his life in one of them. He said up to this point he believes the police have done a poor job investigating the arsons.
"Nobody cares about this part of town, because no one has any money here."
LENGTH: Short : 49 linesby CNB