"Burning Desire" To Escape Debt: Overall Numbers Still Small, But Some Areas Report Significant Increases

The Los Angeles Times reports:

• Some folks celebrate their last home mortgage payment by setting fire to their loan agreement. Lately, some people behind on their mortgages are simply setting fire to their homes. In what appears to be the latest symptom of the nation's mortgage meltdown and credit crisis, insurers, law enforcement officials and state agencies nationwide report a jump in home and automobile fires in the last year believed to have been set by owners unable to pay their debts. The numbers are small, but they're leading the insurance industry to scrutinize more closely what seem to be accidental blazes.

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• Few state or federal agencies categorize arson in terms of the financial status of liens on the property, making nationwide figures elusive. Still, pockets of the country are showing a significant increase. [...] Frank Scafidi of the National Insurance Crime Bureau, a membership organization that tracks insurance fraud, says his group has not identified a rise in financially motivated arson. "Everything we've found does not support that," he said. But some observers say state authorities and insurance companies play down the issue -- perhaps out of fear of copycat crimes.

For more, see Debt may be a factor in suspicious house, car fires (Insurers and law enforcement agencies are seeing more cases with possible financial motives. Many involve properties that are near foreclosure).

For other stories on fires & foreclosures, go here, go here, go here, and go here. foreclosure arson whale