Foreclosure crisis adds fuel to risk of fires at abandoned homes
A fire on the morning of Jan. 6 at 5429 Sandpiper Lane is just the latest of several blazes in vacant homes in the valley.
The Sandpiper Lane home had been unoccupied for several months, and neighbors reported that vagrants had been using it and were seen inside within 24 hours before the fire. The damage to the home was estimated at between $30,000 and $50,000, fire officials said.
Other incidents included:
n A Jan. 6 fire at a four-unit apartment building at 2805 Stewart Ave. that drove a family in an adjacent apartment from their home. The fire started in a vacant, boarded-up unit.
n A Dec. 13 fire at a vacant home in North Las Vegas that destroyed the garage and caused an estimated $125,000 in damage, according to fire officials.
n A Nov. 18 fire at a vacant home near Blue Diamond Road and Hualapai Way that burned the house down and was the second fire at that home in three days.
n An Oct. 10 fire at a vacant home on Smoking Gun Court in the northwest valley that shot flames across to the adjacent home, setting a baby’s room on fire. The girl’s mother was able to rescue her from the room before smoke or breaking glass could injure her, firefighters said. The vacant home sustained roughly $50,000 in damage, while the fire at the occupied home caused $7,500 in damage. Investigators said they discovered graffiti inside the vacant house and damage indicating that unauthorized occupants had been living in it.
As the foreclosure crisis continues and more homes become and stay vacant for a longer time, it’s likely that vacant home fires will continue to be prevalent, said Russell Cameron, deputy fire chief for Clark County.
“We had 26 fires in 2011 in vacant structures,” Cameron said. “Of those, investigators determined that 20 were arson or caused by an incendiary device.”
For statistical purposes, the term arson doesn’t necessarily mean that the fire was set intentionally to cause damage. The fire department uses the term if the blaze was set with an ulterior motive or by someone who didn’t belong at the location. A homeless person setting a fire for warmth or a trespasser being careless with a cigarette would still be accused of arson if they caused a fire.
“There was a jump in the number of fires in vacant homes after 2007,” Cameron said. ” The numbers have only gone up or down by one or two since then. That increase could be tied to a lot of things.”
Las Vegas Fire & Rescue spokesman Tim Szymanski said that city fire officials haven’t seen a significant increase in vacant home fires in recent years, but he has fielded a number of calls from media across the country inquiring about the issue.
“There’s maybe just a few more because with more vacant homes, there’s more opportunity,” Szymanski said. “There isn’t a trend of people intentionally setting vacant homes on fire.”
Officer Laura Meltzer, a spokeswoman for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, said that the common sense thing for residents to do when they see something out of the ordinary at a vacant home is to call 311 or, if the event is in progress, 911.
“If you see something that appears to not belong there — people you don’t recognize squatting or taking things from inside — that’s when you’d want to call,” Meltzer said.
She said that neighbors who are familiar with who should and shouldn’t be inside any given home would have a better grip on what activity is suspicious.
“You need to take ownership of the community in which you live,” Meltzer said. “When you think about it, no one else is going to do it.”
Contact Sunrise/Whitney View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 380-4532.
