By Robert Cronkleton
Kansas City Star – September 18, 2013
For the third day in a row, firefighters rushed to a fire in the same vacant house in a northeast Kansas City, Kan., neighborhood.
All three fires are being called suspicious and are believed to be arson.
“Whoever is doing this obviously doesn’t care about the neighbors or our firefighters,” said Deputy Chief Kevin Shirley, a spokesman for the Kansas City, Kan., Fire Department.
“We had to pull out our firefighters after there was a partial roof collapse,” Shirley said. “It’s really dangerous.”
The latest fire was reported about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday at the single-story house in the 2000 block of North 33rd Terrace.
Crews arriving on the scene reported heavy smoke and fire coming from the house. Shortly after arriving, fire commanders determined it was too dangerous to fight the fire from inside.
A tone alerted firefighters to evacuate the burning building. After all firefighters were accounted for, they fought the blaze in a defensive mode and brought it under control about 7:05 a.m.
The house already had caught fire twice within five hours earlier this week.
The first fire was discovered about 8 p.m. Monday in the rear of the single-story house.
About 1 a.m. Tuesday, firefighters rushed to the second fire, in which two separate areas were ablaze at the rear of the house. The fire had extended to the attic and compromised the roof.
All three fires are being called suspicious, Shirley said. Even though firefighters were still putting the latest fire out this morning, Shirley said the fires appear to be intentional.
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