Intentionally-set fire spreads to 6 houses in Missouri, a recent trend in that neighborhood
By Joseph Hennessy and Shain Bergan
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JACKSON COUNTY, Missouri (KCTV) — Crews from multiple fire departments worked to put out several house fires in a Jackson County neighborhood Monday morning, with the fire chief saying they were intentionally set.
The fires were all in a neighborhood in unincorporated Jackson County near 21st Street and Spruce Avenue. The Inter City Fire Department responded to the scene to see the first structure in flames. The fire quickly spread to the next home, then jumped over to a mobile home that had elderly people living in it.
From there, the fire kept spreading, with crews battling six fires at the same time. Inter City accepted assistance from 25 Independence firefighters to help put out the flames.
Nobody has been injured, but Fire Chief Jeff Jewell said this is a recent trend for that neighborhood, with several intentionally-set fires in recent days and weeks in that one square mile area.
“We need to figure out who is doing this, and we’re going to contact the Missouri Fire Marshall’s Office and see if they can send an investigator out to try and put some clues together to solve this case,” Jewell said.
Penny Creason said she was in her home this morning when she felt the heat. She doesn’t know when it started, but knew she had to act fast. She said the back of her mobile home was melting. She grabbed a hose to try to contain it before authorities arrived to help.
Creason said she thinks people started this on purpose because of how many nearby homes are vacant. She wants more patrolling in the area.
“You wake up at two o’clock in the morning and you don’t—we have a baby, you know. It’s, like, she’s scared to death,” Creason said. “We have to load her in the car and find the dogs, and then you’re rushed off and you don’t even know if you have a home to come back to.”
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