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Dec. 02--A trio of suspicious fires in vacant buildings this morning all within a few blocks of each other near Swope Park had fire officials wondering whether the blazes might be related.
"Three fires within an hour span, all vacant, obviously we would consider that suspicious in such amount of time and close proximity," said Battalion Chief Joe Vitale, a spokesman for the fire department. "We will let the investigators make that determination and cause."
No one was injured in the series of fires, which started about 6:50 a.m. The first fire involved a two-story house in the 3800 block of East 56th Street.
Arriving firefighters reported smoke and fire coming from the second story.
"The two-story vacant structure was heavily involved on the second floor," Vitale said.
Shortly thereafter, a second fire was reported nearby in a single-story vacant house in the 5600 block of Swope Parkway.
The third fire was reported about 7:20 a.m. at a single-story commercial structure near East 58th Terrace and College Avenue. The building was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived. Afraid the building might collapsed, firefighters took a defensive mode and fought the fire from outside.
About 9:30 a.m., other firefighters headed to a fourth blaze, this one in an abandoned school at East 39th Street and Garfield Avenue, about three miles from the first three blazes. They found a fire burning in debris on the second floor. There was no immediate word on whether someone had set that fire.
Anyone with information about the fires is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (474-8477).
--Robert A. Cronkleton, [email protected]
