Isn't It A Bit Strange...
If there's ONE thing the city of Fort Wayne does NOT lack, it's a continuing source of "stuff" (and you know what word REALLY should go there) that makes one want to raise an eyebrow, and take another LONG look.
In the past few weeks, we've had (here) a sudden increase in the number of "suspicious" fires on the South side. Now at the start, I said to my wife that they were ARSONS. And I was correct in that call.
See, having come from a much larger city where "Jewish Lightning" occurs with a sense of regularity, you get to know what to look for.
In a business venue, arson frequently occurs when a company is having financial difficulties. The owner just wants to get the hell out, but can't just up and shut the doors. So the building (mysteriously) "catches fire", burns to the ground, the insurance money pays off the owner (and maybe the employees who are now displaced), and the company is dissolved. Simple, huh? Take a watch of the Jack Lemmon movie PAPER TIGER to get an idea of all this.
As for all these residential houses being torched, the FWFD spokesperson is saying that each fire is "unique", and it's statements like THAT which give me pause. Fire IS fire...period. The motivation BEHIND the fire can be a number of finite reasons. The BUILDINGS are usually the ONLY "unique" factor in the equation (as are the arsonists, although their Modus Operandi don't even differ all that much).
In every case so far, the fires were started in a VACANT house. The fires were started on the SECOND FLOOR. The area of the fires is a relatively SMALL area.
My take is that the FWFD needs to see if any (or all) of the houses had been hit by scrappers when they examine the remains. If the copper is still there...fine. If it is NOT, then that opens another door on these arsons. And as you already know, we DO have a problem with scrappers (especially on the SOUTH side of the city). Scrappers were the ones that caused that house at 3608 S. Anthony Blvd to explode (back on 5 June) when scrappers opened up a gas line during their "extracurricular" activities. I suppose we're fortunate the houses targeted in MY area did not have such dumb ass thieves when they were targeted. The damage caused THEN only set the homeowners back a thousand dollars or so (lucky them).
I mean there IS such a thing as a GAS SHUT OFF VALVE, moron!
Goes to show criminals are stupid for all the right reasons.
I can understand the need of the FWFD to not disclose ALL information about these arsons, but to take the typical "stock answer" way out might not be the way to go either. The public needs to know AS MUCH as is possible without compromising the investigations. There might be citizens out there NOW that have seen something, or know something, but since the fire department hasn't "jogged their memory" when releasing information, people aren't putting two and two together yet.
Does the arsonist live in the targeted area?
Perhaps, but it would depend on several things, not the least of which is whether this is a scrapper-related situation. The perp (or perps) could be from across town, but see THIS area as "ripe for the picking". It's also dependent upon whether people will notice anything out of the ordinary, or whether they're too self-absorbed to give a crap (much like the neighbors I have surrounding me).
Let's face it, there is SOMETHING about that area around the 1300 block of Jackson St. and the 600 block of Hendricks St. that is attracting someone's attention. maybe it's all the vacant houses...maybe something else. The latest arson is on the NW side (800 block Florence).
Maybe it's someone's idea of URBAN RENEWAL...who knows?
---In a somewhat related story, Allen County HOMEOWNERS will see about a 28% DROP in property taxes (Well, spank me rosy and sell my clothes...I MUST be goin' to heaven). I just hope these suspicious fires don't impact on people wanting to BUY a home (and not be given one for free, as is the case with any "entitlement" program).

Of course businesses will see up to a 3% increase, and RENTAL PROPERTIES will also see higher taxes (about frigging time).

Maybe that will cause a drop in the NUMBER of rentals we have around here. Of course, that would ALSO mean we need a school to TEACH first time home buyers WTF is means to OWN a house, and MAINTAIN it (as well as the property it's on), and HOW to be a good neighbor (and not one of these culturally-diverse assholes that do nothing but annoy others with their constant behavioral "nuances"...and noise).
Like Dad said..."If you're gonna dream, son...dream BIG".
I can dream that will happen. Problem is, it won't make it so. It's that darn short-term memory problem they suffer from. But I can still hope.
Hope the hit the damn lottery...and "Get the hell outta Dodge", that is!
Remember..it's all downhill until the weekend (or is that UP-hill?) depending on YOUR point of view.