Fires In Vacant Homes On The Upswing?

The Associated Press reports:

• Fires in vacant homes rose 11 percent to 21,000 in 2006 — the latest year for which figures are available — while all home fires rose just 4 percent, the National Fire Protection Association reported in April. More than four of every 10 vacant building fires were intentionally set, the group reported. Some of that is arson for financial reasons. But in neighborhoods of sagging homes worth little, fires are often set by vandals, the homeless or people seeking revenge.

• The threat grows as empty homes multiply, said John Hall, the NFPA's division director for fire analysis and research. Vacant homes nationwide topped 19 million earlier this year, up from 15.7 million in 2005, according to the Census Bureau. "The best way to prevent vacant building fires is to prevent vacant buildings," the NFPA concluded.

For more, see Fire moves into houses abandoned by foreclosures (Fire Moves Into Houses Nation's Foreclosure Crisis Left Abandoned - But Not Always Empty).

For other stories on fires & foreclosures, go here, go here, go here, go here, go here, and go here. ForeclosureHomeVacantBeta