About 40 times a year someone takes matches or a cigarette lighter and perhaps a can of gasoline and starts a fire in Lawrence.
The target might be a trash Dumpster in an alley, or it might be an apartment building.
On Jan. 17, 1993, two teen-age girls died in an apartment fire in the 800 block of West 25th Street. Several other people were injured. The fire was arson, but a suspect was never arrested.
"Typically the ones I remember are the ones involving loss of life," Lawrence Fire Marshal Rich Barr said during a recent interview. "That was always a tough one."
Arson not only causes death and injury, it also hits everyone in the pocketbook. For every dollar spent on property insurance premiums, 25 cents goes to cover arson-related costs, according to the Kansas Fire Marshal's Office.
Barr and fire investigators with Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical investigate from 30 to 50 arsons or intentionally set fires each year, department records show. That doesn't include investigations to determine causes of fires that might be accidental or a result of mechanical or electrical problems.
Causes are still undetermined for nine structure fires that occurred in 2001, Barr said. Included is the Christmas night fire that destroyed a mobile classroom at Hillcrest School, 1045 Hilltop Drive.
Debris samples were sent to the Sedgwick County forensics laboratory in Wichita to see if accelerants, such as gasoline, were used. The results are not back yet.
Fire investigators also continue to work on another possible arson that destroyed a caboose parked on railroad tracks near Eighth and Pennsylvania streets.
Investigators begin their work at the outer perimeter of a fire where there is the least amount of destruction and work their way to the center to determine where the fire started, said Lt. Clinton Lynn, one of six fire investigators with Fire & Medical who also work as firefighters and paramedics.
"You want to keep an open mind and let the incident speak to you," Lynn said. 'It's interesting to go in and try to figure out what occurred out of all this chaos and destruction."
Once the site where the fire started has been determined, investigators begin the process of eliminating possible causes, such as utility problems.
"In this business many times you can't eliminate all the possible causes," Barr said. "Investigators try to place a suspect in the area and make an arrest."
But "many convictions occur basically on circumstantial evidence," Barr said.
For the past two years, fire investigators have turned over information to the Douglas County District Attorney resulting in filings of nine cases. The outcomes of those cases weren't readily available.
The 1993 arson fire that claimed the lives of the teen-agers also is considered a homicide case that will remain open until someone is arrested and convicted.
Investigators think they know who set it but they don't have enough evidence to bring charges, Barr said.
"It's always out there if something new develops," he said.
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