HEIGHTS HOME FIRES STILL BURNING Early this morning: the 10th and 11th in a series of set blazes in the Heights, all targeting vacant homes. The latest were on 9th St. and 12th St.: “Before today, all the other fires had occurred along Ashland between 10th and 11th streets. Today’s fires were within three blocks of the previous blazes. District Chief Arthur Broussard said both fires appeared suspicious, and the second one appeared to start near an exterior staircase. Firefighters put it out within 15 minutes. ‘It’s pretty brazen, pretty brazen,’ he said of the second fire starting such a short distance from where firefighters and police were still on the scene of the first one.” [Houston Chronicle]
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‘It’s pretty brazen, pretty brazen,’ he said of the second fire starting such a short distance from where firefighters and police were still on the scene of the first one.â€
The must not have been physically on the seen are they would have seen the fire starter!
As mentioned in the Demolition report, it is very suspicious that some of the houses that caught on fire also have demo permits pulled!
Were all the houses vacant at the time of the fires? Maybe a group of neighbors got tired of waiting for irresponsible slum lords to tear them down?
So why don’t they set up a few camera traps around the vacant homes in the neighborhood and see who they catch.
This sounds to me like the desperate act of someone who deep down wanted to salvage and restore each of these homes but was told that “if you want to save it, go buy it and save it yourself”. Not having the money, the last resort was to simply set fire to these places so everyone would be aware of this plight. So let this be lesson to all of you. If you want to save all of the houses on Ashland….go buy them yourselves or else you’ll have to deal with the consequences.
ew bigintexas33…is it you?
miss msry, that would be so wrong.
bigintexas33, if that was the reason someone was burning these houses, it would be an extremely childish, stupid, and immature act.
On top of that, it could turn into homicide if it jumps to an occupied home.
kjb: learn to laugh at yourself.
So, the match is mightier than the pen.
My guess is that it is one or a group of neighbors who are tired of having to live around vacant, boarded up filth. Owners should be held accountable for the condition AND appearance of their property. The other reason I think it is someone in the area is that they have done this 11 times and nobody has seen them coming or going, so it seems that they can duck in and out really quick.
Yeah, sure, the NEIGHBORS are setting these fires that could easily spread to their own homes. Makes perfect sense.
county taxes on the lots alone would be more than an owner could get back in rent-given the condition of those houses. still, arson isn’t a viable answer and i hope they get to the bottom of the fires and maybe someone goes to jail. another alternative, the fires were from squatters. who knows?