Arson for Hate and Profit

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"Arson is a barometer of urban decay," says New York City Deputy Chief Fire Marshal John Barracato, "and most city fathers are ashamed to admit they have this problem." But the ruinous dimensions cannot be hidden. In New York City's South Bronx, where Jimmy Carter took an impromptu walking tour earlier this month, there have been more than 7,000 fires in the past two years. "The destruction is reminiscent of the bombed-out cities in Europe," says Bronx District Attorney Mario Merola, who was a navigator in World War II. Chicago's Humboldt Park area has some 400 charred, abandoned buildings. In Detroit, 10,000 houses stand vacant, victims of fire. "The city is burning down," said an anguished Lieut. Robert McClary, head of Detroit's fire-fraud squad.

An estimated 40% of arson nationwide is economically motivated, as in the Boston cases that led to last week's roundup. Blazes are set by quasi-professional "torches" hired by landlords, real estate brokers, store owners, or welfare tenants who want to be relocated. The purpose, as New York Columnist Jimmy Breslin has put it, is to "build vacant lots for money." Charging up to $3,500 or a cut of the insurance money, the torch frequently mixes a brew of acid and sophisticated oxidizing agents to ignite a chemical fire that is all but impossible to trace.

In ghetto areas like the South Bronx and Humboldt Park, landlords often see arson as a way of profitably liquidating otherwise unprofitable assets. The usual strategy: drive out tenants by cutting off the heat or water; make sure the fire insurance is paid up; call in a torch. In effect, says Barracato, the landlord or businessman "literally sells his building back to the insurance company because there is nobody else who will buy it." Barracato's office is currently investigating a case in which a Brooklyn building insured for $200,000 went up in flames six minutes before its insurance policy expired.

Usually deadlier than the professional torch is the psychopathic amateur who burns once for strictly personal reasons such as jealousy or revenge. A federal study puts 55% of adult arsonists in the burn-for-hate category. In New York, a jealous suitor and two friends have been charged with setting a fire last year in a Puerto Rican social club in the South Bronx. Twenty-five party-goers died in the blaze. The alleged motive: the man's girl friend had attended the party against his wishes. Says Donald Mershon, manager of the Metropolitan Chicago Loss Bureau, which handles property insurance claims for more than 100 firms: "Kids used to throw rocks or settle an argument with their fists. Now they simply burn a house down. Arson is being used as a weapon."

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