By Carl Lindquist
The York Dispatch
Copyright 2007 York Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
YORK, Pa. — An abnormally high number of small, suspicious fires in York City this year is drawing concern from local fire officials.
Since January, investigators have noticed an uptick in the number of so-called “nuisance fires,” said York City Deputy Fire Chief Steve Buffington.
“We have had a rash recently of, thank goodness, small fires in various areas in the city,” he said.
He counted about 40 since the beginning of the year.
Fire officials are worried that, although the fires start small, the flames could spread and kill people, Buffington said.
And people who set nuisance fires sometimes decide to upgrade targets and start lighting buildings on fire, he said.
Buffington pointed to the case of drifter Michael Paul Zunich Jr., 44.
Zunich was sentenced to 15 to 30 years in state prison earlier this month for setting fires to trash, brush, apartment buildings, a house and garages in York City between September 2005 and April 2006.
In that case, fire investigators learned that the fires were related. In this case, they haven’t yet come to that conclusion, said Buffington, who noted that many of the larger recent fires -- those that actually displaced families -- have been ruled accidental.
But a fire recently set on the grounds of a vacant home at 319 N. Penn St., is a good example of a nuisance fire that could have gone wrong, Buffington said.
In that case, a pile of leaves that was set on fire outside the home scorched a wooden staircase that leads to the building’s second floor, according to York City Police.
It was one of two fires set at the property between Saturday, April 14, and Thursday. A second fire was started on concrete steps leading to the garage of the residence, according to York City Police
Fortunately, neither fire became an all-out blaze, Buffington said.
“That’s what’s going to wind up graduating into a bigger event,” he said. “Now you have them setting fires where they are close to the building and actually cause physical damage.”
Beyond the other ramifications, a response to those types of fires can draw resources away from other, bigger events, Buffington said.