Nov. 25--Travis Kincaid loves to tell the story about catching an East Knoxville arsonist.
"The news was there (at the fire). The chiefs were there, both the fire and police chiefs. All these cameras, and I was nervous. She wasn't doing what I wanted," he recalls.
"She" is Bailey, the Knoxville Fire Department's arson dog since 2009.
"Suddenly she yanked the leash out from me and took off," says Kincaid, a KFD captain and Bailey's trainer. "So, I tear off after her. I go around a house and she's sitting there, pointing her nose. And, I look down and there is an unexploded Molotov cocktail.
"I give her her reward treat. Then she tracked across two empty fields and across Martin Luther King (Jr. Boulevard) and to the door of a club, a bar with about 200 people in it. We called the fire marshal in. He shut the club down. We did a photo lineup and she found the person who was ultimately responsible for doing the Molotov."
It was a classic example of Bailey at work. Kincaid she has saved insurance companies nearly $5 million in unlawful claims and put a number of criminals behind bars.
And, Bailey is just one weapon in the challenging fight against arson in East Tennessee.
Beeler estimates that nearly 50 percent of the fires in Knoxville are the work of arsonists.
Plotting a map of all of the fires, including those intentional set, in the city of Knoxville from 2006-11 based on the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) data shows concentrations in Lonsdale and East Knoxville.
Assistant Fire Chief Danny Beeler, who heads the KFD's arson unit, says lower income neighborhoods are much more likely to have fires and fires caused by arson.
"Those are more likely to have rental property," he says, "and therefor (occupants) don't care for and maintain a house the way an owner would. Most of the homes in those areas are older homes with substandard heat and electrical systems. In these circumstances, auxiliary electric heat, stoves or fireplaces are sometimes used. All of these are contributors to fire cause."
Take Virginia Avenue in Lonsdale. The NFIRS map for 2006-11 shows 11 fires there. Two of the fires are listed in the NFIRS report as "Intentional". Two others, a Scripps News analysis lists as suspicious. The listings are base on the fact that both of those houses were foreclosed on within a short time period around the time the fires were set.
"We had a rash of fires in that area of Lonsdale," Beeler says. "Most were vacant houses or apartments. We did surveillance over a long period of time. Eventually arrests were made in connection with those fires. Even though the charges did not reflect all of the fires in the area during that time, we are confident we arrested the responsible persons."
Beeler says setting fires is often a weapon in domestic fights or a battle with the landlord.
"Some people have no way of getting back at somebody except for burning their stuff. They don't want to kill anybody, but they want revenge."
He says that was the case concerning a house at 707 Victor Street in Lonsdale that shows in the NFIRS data that it went up three times within two months in 2007.
"That turned out to be a domestic situation and an arrest was eventually made," he says.
A house at 4313 Strolling Drive was ablaze in November 2012, June 2013 and on Aug. 14, 2013. The first time, KFD investigators determined was the work of a group of five youthful arsonists, who were responsible for a series of arsons in the area. Five people were arrested.
"Some arsonists are for hire. They are the 'Hired Torch.' You own a structure and you want to get rid of it. Through the grapevine you find somebody who will burn it; well, that's your Hired Torch," he said. "But there are also people who get excitement. They are serial arsonists as well."
Beeler said his department has come to know the serial arsonists around Knoxville through the years people to keep an eye on. However, he said most of those are either old or dead now.
"We've still got a few, but we haven't heard any activity out of them in a long time," he said.
Another weapon used by the arson squad is the confidential informant.
"There are certain communities where, whatever happens in this community, this person knows about it. If they don't know about it when we talk to them, they find out.
"We know just because they say it's so, doesn't mean it's so. We still have to go about the process of proving it."
Arson often overlooked by America's fire investigators
Knoxville firefighters call on bag of tricks to fight arson
America's 'grossly underreported' arsons hide public safety threat
Knoxville, Knox County working to update arson record-keeping
Editorial: Incomplete data makes it difficult to battle arson
Copyright 2013 - The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn.
