Philadelphia suburb stunned by a series of arsons

Philadelphia suburb stunned by a series of arsons

m.apnews.com

Published: Yesterday

COATESVILLE, Pa. (AP) - Authorities are urging residents in this Philadelphia suburb to remove flammable materials from their porches and to keep porch lights on at night following a string of suspicious fires.

The latest fire tore through a block of row houses Saturday, damaging 15 homes, leaving several dozen people homeless and prompting city officials to declare a state of emergency.

At least 30 arsons have been reported since the beginning of 2008, about half of them in the last three weeks. Police said the blazes may be part of a gang initiation, but there was no clear information who was committing the crimes or why.

"This is an arson, no question about it," City Manager Harry Walker said Sunday. Coatesville is about 45 miles west of Philadelphia.

The emergency declaration gives the city powers to deal with the situation without worrying about the budget, such as boarding up the buildings, assigning police to protect them and helping the families involved, Walker said.

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After I found this story I thought long and hard as to whom would benefit from such arsons and why. Then it came to me. They are destroying HOMES. Meaning that it is possible that some bank is paying someone to get these homes of the books for them. They've declared an state of emergency to deal with the problem as it is apparently big enough to warrant such a declaration.

I'm mean, is it just me or is this seriously fishy?

m.apnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I would be more suspect of the home owners. People who cant make their mortgage, cant sell for enough to get out from under their loan, and have insurance on the home.

reply to post by XigXag


Read the whole article. This is just too big to be a rash of home owners pissed about their mortgages. It doesn't make sense to me that these people would do this. As the biggest losses are taken when those homes just sit there losing value. And it is the banks that are taking these losses.

If they burned them down, they would have insurance claims + be able to write off the loss.

maybe it is banks and home owners, they are the only ones to gain from it -but then again crazy people do crazy things, some stupid gang thing or a single determined guy might be doing it.

If the world was sensible then when people go crazy they would burn down whoever was messing up their bit of the world, evil multinationals would be constant targets but alas anyone smart enough to see their evil is smart enough to know not to sink to their level. Only the violent idiots do these things and they always pick on the week and innocent.

You may be right. The police say it may be a gang initiation. But gangs jump themselves in. They don't burn houses down, can't vouch for every gang in the nation but I've had my education in the ways of the gang banger..And this just isn't there MO.

With the wave of foreclosures hitting the US, and this being only the beginning, people who are already being foreclosed on have little incentive to commit crimes that would further destroy their lives. And the scope, complexity and size of this arson rules out gang activity.

Whose left?

There was a small wave of arson where I live not to long ago. Something like five houses in about two weeks were officially labeled arsons and several others that were questionable.

I am going to have to look more into this, see if arsons are up in all major cities. This could be something big.

[edit on 27-1-2009 by A NeWorlDisorder]

Originally posted by projectvxn
You may be right. The police say it may be a gang initiation. But gangs jump themselves in. They don't burn houses down, can't vouch for every gang in the nation but I've had my education in the ways of the gang banger..And this just isn't there MO.

With the wave of foreclosures hitting the US, and this being only the beginning, people who are already being foreclosed on have little incentive to commit crimes that would further destroy their lives. And the scope, complexity and size of this arson rules out gang activity.

Whose left?

Well, the thing is, yes, gangs used to just jump their members in and sometimes just mug people for initiation, but times have changed. You don't get jumped in anymore, you kill people. You destroy property. That's what is done a lot more now.

www.cnn.com...

This is an Update. More Arsons.

I live very near this town. A week ago (Sat night) was the big fire with 15 homes lost. My son and I drove into town about midnight on our way home. I said "what's that big pillar of smoke? Looks like the ironworks is running tonight". there is a large Bethlehem Steel factory there. It was the townhomes burning. Huge amount of support - dozens of fire trucks and cop cars keeping traffic out of the area.

It's sad to see it continue and the town is frightened to sleep at night. A lot of people expect more fires to come. Local paper you can check with on this is: www.dailylocal.com

The town is known for being a place to go to buy drugs, there are gangs and there have been some daytime and nighttime shootings.

Sheesh - another day, another 4 fires.

www.cnn.com...

The Guardian Angles came into town from NYC/etc. It's gotta be something gang related or possibly just a freak who can't get enough. They did have 3 arrests in December but the fires continue.