After last night’s two arson fires, the Seattle Fire Department has announced that they will be conducting arson patrols around Greenwood and handing out arson prevention information. There’s no word on when or where the patrols will taking place.
Anyone with information that may be related to arson can call the Arson Alarm Hotline at 1-800-55-ARSON. A reward may be provided for an arson conviction. For any suspicious activity taking place, please call 911.
24 responses so far ↓
1 Iron City Mike // Nov 5, 2009 at 5:28 pm
About time! We need to mobilize every resource we can to stop this guy while there is still a Greenwood left.
2 hamsandwich // Nov 5, 2009 at 5:29 pm
I’m glad the Fire Department will be starting patrols to try to prevent further arsons, but I really think the Police Department needs to step up here. I realize they are focused on finding the murderer of Officer Brenton (as they should be), but just as that crime has shaken their department, the Central District, and the whole city, these arsons are also disconcerting to us in Greenwood.
I am angry and frustrated that the past arsons are still unsolved, and new fires continue to happen. I will be at the community meeting, which I hope will be scheduled soon.
3 Greenwood // Nov 5, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Hurray to the fire department! Much appreciated!
4 john walker // Nov 5, 2009 at 6:01 pm
some regular police patrols, assigned to greenwood/phinney are badly needed. seems like they just drive through, often at 100mph, on the way to something elsewhere. everyone out at 3am to 5am walking the streets or riding around aimlessly on a bicycle needs to be checked out. i saw no police cars watching traffic last saturday when zillions of kids were trick or treating in the afternoon. there is basically no police presence in the neighborhood at all. they chased the crime off the aurora corridor and it came up here, but the police stayed on aurora.
5 typenschild delete // Nov 5, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Could be a “she”, too. Likely not, but keeping your eyes open for suspicious activity means not making assumptions about what that person will look like once you actually see them. I’ve noticed several of the articles (not necessarily here) using the word “he” as if it’s a known, when it’s not.
PS, can we get the Dante’s Inferno Dogs ad moved?
6 Tim Flanagan // Nov 5, 2009 at 6:07 pm
I also say “Hurrah for the fire department!” And although I was sort of thinking I was past the time in my life when I would do “shift work”, I would be willing to do my share. I could probably pull a two-hour middle-of-the-night shift once a week. Probably lots of us could.
Has the Greenwood-Phinney Chamber, or perhaps the SFD, given any thought to scheduling citizen patrols and routes? Probably not…liability, you know. So I guess we’re on our own if we want to organize something coherent, aren’t we?
7 Amy // Nov 5, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Being overly sensitive and ostracizing a businesses legitimate advertising won’t help the Greenwood arson situation. Please leave the Dante’s Inferno Dogs ad.
8 anotherneighbor // Nov 5, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Thank you!!! I would be interested in doing a shift as well… I woke up to the sirens last night, and then heard them a second time, and just had a sinking feeling in my heart wondering what was burning THIS time…
9 typenschild delete // Nov 5, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Sorry, was meant in a joking tone, but I’m not skilled at showing that over the internet. Dante’s Dogs are fine with me, as is their ad placement. Forgive my poor attempt at bring a bit of humor to a tragic situation.
10 Emc // Nov 5, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Ok – every time I post these links -my post seems to get deleted, but have the cops been keeping an eye on this guy? He’s the arsonist who set the 15+ fires in the Greenwood area about 5 years ago, then fled to Canada, and then was released back to Seattle a couple years ago, and as of recently, was still in the area. Coincidence…?
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20041126&slug=arsonupdate26m
http://www.komonews.com/internal?st=print&id=4132706&path=/news/archive
11 TheGreenhood // Nov 5, 2009 at 8:37 pm
I have to admit that my assumption of a HE was corrected by my 11 year old. Out of the mouths of babes comes correction!
I do have to give props to my neighbors, they put out the first fire last night before the fire department showed up. I always knew I had fantastic neighbors left and right, but Grant and Janice are superheros. I can’t stop thinking about how bad it could have been in the alley behind my house had they not seen the fire before it got out of hand.
It just goes to show what we as residents can do. If anyone hears a siren or a suspicious noise at night, it’s time to get up and look out the window, sometimes that’s all it takes. I have spent so long hearing sirens on 85th and assuming it was the same old same old that I forgot to take care of my hood. I will get my butt out of bed next time.
12 SunsetSu // Nov 5, 2009 at 8:45 pm
John Walker you are so right on. I’ve lived in this area for decades and seen cops squeeze the sleaze on Aurora until it goes north (before Shoreline was a city) or spills out to the east and west.
While I don’t think the pimps, pushers and prostitutes on Aurora have anything to do with the arson (no profit in it) they make our lives more dangerous.
The cops do indeed speed through our neighborhood on their way to somewhere more important. The North Precinct, which is 32 square miles of the city, from the Ship Canal to N. 145th St, gets virtually no attention.
I would also be willing to get up early or stay up late and be part of a citizen patrol. We could arm ourselves with digital and video cameras and cell phones set to call 911.
I never heard of a female arsonist, but that doesn’t mean there couldn’t be one. All the arsonists I’ve read about have been young white males. Go read the descriptions and characteristics of arsonists So using “he” to describe the arsonist isn’t sexist, it’s historically correct.
13 Sam M. // Nov 5, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Firemen were patrolling Greenwood this evening at 5:30 p.m. I’d rather they get some eyes on our alleyways in the early a.m. hours, though… these fires have never occurred during normal waking hours, duh.
14 Christo // Nov 5, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Part of the firemens patrol is probably to try and identify at risk locations that have piled up trash, boxes etc.
15 Mike // Nov 5, 2009 at 10:06 pm
1 fire occurred during the waking hours: 4:45pm the house on 84th burned down
16 Vince // Nov 5, 2009 at 11:04 pm
I think the residents need to organize patrols between 1 am and 5am. We need to move in groups, so no one gets hurt in case the arsonist decides to go crazy. Please organize night patrols. We need to backup local law enforcement and the fire department. I have already agreed to volunteer as soon as something is set up.
17 CPA Seattle // Nov 5, 2009 at 11:17 pm
Our company was the 1st fire set this morning. First and foremost, I’d like to thank Grant and Janice for taking extraordinary action in helping to save our building and business. Had they not knocked down the fire with fire extinuishers prior to the fire department arriving, we could have sustained very substantial damage.
Just as I see in the activity on this blog we’ve had an outpouring of support from our business and residential neighbors – We had at least 25 neighborhood business and residents contact us today asking if there is anything they could help us with.
This is on everybody’s mind! I’m happy to hear that the fire department will be conducting arson patrols.
I’m certainly going to look into getting video montioring devices around our business. If there was someone who specialized in this type of work, I’d think they would have plenty of work around our neighborhood. If anyone knows of a company specializing in this please let me know. I’d also be interesting to know if several side by side businesses could go in on a system that could monitor multiple properties on one recording system. This could help defer the cost between several businesses.
I’ll be watching for the upcoming community meeting!
18 allisonw // Nov 6, 2009 at 1:06 am
Hi Dave Liatos! Great ideas. I’m still living 1.5 blocks from your current location, and I like the idea of businesses joining together to get video cameras.
19 CPA Seattle // Nov 6, 2009 at 8:22 am
Here’s another thought on the cameras. Some of us will be installing cameras. What if we make up signs to post on both businesses and residential properties indicating that due to the recent arson activities that property is being videotaped. For a small cost someone could also mount a dummy camera on thier building.
It may or may not be true – but hopefully it will prevent the arsonist from setting that property on fire. And if this person is dumb enough to start a fire on a building with a posted sign and visiable camera we may get lucky enough to catch him on a property that actually has a working camera.
It might make sense to have these signs made up to distribute at the next community meeting.
20 Greenwood // Nov 6, 2009 at 3:31 pm
My sister and I were checking out the house under construction on 84th behind Gorditos around 11 a.m. this morning when a strange guy in sweatpants and an overcoat and drinking a cup of coffee from 7 11 wandered over muttering to himself and sort of watching us. We watched him cause his behavior was just odd. Then he came over, acting very sketchy, and asked us if this was the house that had burned. We said no. As we walked away, the guy, who was very, very weird, walked over to he house and started looking around under the porch. He was about six feet fall. Mid to late 50s. Grey, very short hair, looked almost bald. Wearing grey sweats and an overcoat. Watched him until he headed off, but never saw what happened to him. Left me feeling very suspicious. Anyone who has seen that house knows the least interesting part of it is the porch. Anyone seen this guy around? He was not friendly ad seemed to be homeless and somewhat off.
21 Mike Perry // Nov 6, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Anyone with expertise in video camera monitoring around?
Such cameras can already spot movement and sound an alarm. It shouldn’t be hard to make a system that’d spot the tell-tale infrared from a fire and sound an alarm, silent or otherwise. One such camera should be able to cover an entire city block. Personally, while I’d like to see this arsonist caught, I’m not happy about joining 4 am patrols.
Also, we’re doing a lot of speculating about what sort of person this would be. Via Google Books, here’s a description of a serial arsonist from Criminal Profiling, a highly rated reference work (p. 439). The list apparently comes from the standard FBI profile for serial arsonists.
* White males between 18 and 27.
* Loners.
* Educational failures.
* Homosexuals or bisexuals.
* History of criminal activity.
* Medical or mental problems.
* Poor employment record.
* Alcohol and drug abuse.
* Dysfunctional family background.
* Walkers who set fires within two miles of their home.
* Act on the spur of the moment, usually for revenge.
The last seems unlikely, given the variety of targets. The next-to-last may be the most important for catching whoever is doing this. He’s likely to be someone who lives in Greenwood or nearby, someone we see walking about and may even know.
22 Emc // Nov 7, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Mike Perry – if you want to see the profile of an arsonist, see these links I posted earlier. This guy, as of recently, was living back in Seattle – he somewhat fits the description of the guy Greenwood posted about too:
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20041126&slug=arsonupdate26m
http://www.komonews.com/internal?st=print&id=4132706&path=/news/archive
23 GS // Nov 10, 2009 at 7:52 am
The description posted of a suspicious looking person close to the house on 84th brought to mind a suspicious-looking character I saw in that area a few weeks ago. He was in the parking lot of Top 10 Toys and Blockbuster. Iron-gray hair, unkempt appearance, but I don’t remeber what he was wearing. He walked down the street in the direction of the burnt out house, shouting incoherently, and periodically reversed the direction he was walking in and crossed the street several times while I was watching. At the time I assumed that he was just another homeless person who needed medication, but now I’m wondering if he’s connected. Does anyone have a picture of this Mark Morse?
I’ve also seen an older woman in the area, perhaps Native American, with a medical ID bracelet on er wrist. I’ve seen her riding the bus (5) in the Greenwood area several times. She frequently yells while on the bus, mutters incoherently, and seems to have no clue where she is. She’s often lacking bus fare and seems to come and go randomly.
If you want to organize a citizen patrol, you should utilize a social networking site like Facebook. Make a Greenwood Against Arson page or something along those lines where people can share tips and updates quickly and reach a broad range of people. You don’t want to publish information about who will be patrolling where on the Internet, but you could send an update each day telling people interested in participating in the patrol to meet at a specific time and location to get their route and group assignment for the night.
24 TGN // Nov 10, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Yay Seattle Fire, thank you for finally stepping up. A word of caution, there are some crazy people that are completely harmless and could use our help rather than our scorn. We certainly need to investigate suspicious persons but let’s not turn this into a witch hunt. If you do see a suspicious person, please contact the police. This is a dangerous situation, keep your wits about you and stay safe. Building cans be replaced, people can’t.
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