Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for September 21, 2007 CAIRO, KENTUCKY

This article doesn't really have any "news", but I had to pass it along after seeing the headline of "KY city..."

Us locals have said for years that IL had disowned Cairo for years...and that they secretly wished that we would just slide quietly off into the confluence. My attention has been elsewhere for a while...did it happen???

KY city copes with string of arson fires
The Paducah Sun, Ky. (September 20, 2007)

Cairo confronts arson series

Amy Burroughs

Sep. 20--CAIRO, Ill. -- After seven suspicious fires in eight days, Cairo Fire Chief John Meyer said residents need to be even more vigilant about unusual activities in their neighborhoods.

The state fire marshal's office is investigating the fires, which began Sept. 8 and have continued through Monday. They have occurred throughout the city, at different times of day, and in occupied and vacant buildings.

No one has been injured, but the fires have left a residue of unease among some neighbors.

"It puts you to wondering whether your house is going to be next," Henrietta Porter said, pointing to three vacant houses next door that she fears could attract an arsonist.

Cairo police have added extra patrols of the city, Meyer said.

Between Sept. 8 and Friday, there were four fires at residences, three of which were vacant. Residents at 215 12th St., where a fire began at 1:40 a.m. Sept. 8, escaped without injury, Meyer said.

A fire at a vacant house at 1100 Poplar threatened to spread to a neighboring home when it ignited a tree between the two houses. Yvette Brown, who lives next to the house that burned, said firefighters told her and her daughters to evacuate.

While her daughter Airryon, 13, said the fire was "nerve-wracking," Brown said she takes it in stride.

"It's just the time we're living in," she said. "People will do anything. It's not surprising what they'll do."

Two days later, three fires occurred within three hours, starting with a house fire at 9:45 p.m. on Sunday. While firefighters were responding to that, another fire began at Beyond the Bay Bar and Grill, Meyer said. Forty minutes later, a car parked next to a house was set on fire, he said.

"Sunday night we had to get quite a few departments in here," he said.

One house that burned that night, at 736 33rd St., belonged to a couple that had begun to move in their collection of antiques, neighbor Louise Billingsley said. They were not home when the fire occurred, Meyer said.

The chief said residents can help investigators by being alert to unknown people in their neighborhoods.

"Everybody in town has to be more vigilant of people walking around their neighborhoods. If they see anything strange whatsoever, they need to call the police department to investigate it."

Anyone with information about the fires is asked to call the Cairo Police Department at 618-734-2131, the Cairo Fire Department at 618-734-1947 or the State Fire Marshal Arson Hotline at 800-252-2947.