Fire crews responded to a fire Monday evening inside a building of the Naismith Valley Apartment complex. The fire was set in a hallway near a first-floor laundry room.
Case #11: Nov. 21, 7:15 a.m. Fire crews work the scene of a Tuesday morning fire at 2413 Ousdahl Road in Lawrence.
Tuesday morning fire
Fire crews responded to a fire at an apartment complex at 2413 Ousdahl Road Tuesday morning around 7:15 a.m. Enlarge video
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Suspected arson cases
A look at some of the apartment buildings targeted in a string of recent suspected arson cases in Lawrence.
Fire crews responded to two apartment complex fires — one Monday night and one Tuesday morning — that bear similarities to a string of recent unsolved suspected arsons in Lawrence, said Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical Chief Mark Bradford.
Crews responded to the first fire Monday about 7:45 p.m. in a building of the Naismith Valley Apartment complex at 1026 W. 24th St. Bradford said there was minimal damage and that the fire was in a hallway of the complex, outside of a laundry room.
The fire Tuesday was reported about 7:15 a.m., where a bag of trash had been set on fire in a laundry room of a building of the Cedarwood Apartment complex at 2413 Ousdahl. There was minimal damage in that fire as well, Bradford said.
Bradford said he couldn't yet determine if the two fires were related or part of the larger series of suspected arson, but said "it appears to me they're similar in nature."
The fires were in the area — from 23rd Street south to 25th Street and from Iowa Street east to Naismith Drive — of several recent suspected arson cases.
Many of the other fires have occurred in laundry rooms or hallways in apartment complexes in that area. The fires have also been set inside of apartment complexes where exterior doors to the buildings are not locked, Bradford said.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Lawrence Police Department at 830-7430, or the TIPS hotline at 843-8477.
Comments
oneeye_wilbur 5 months, 4 weeks ago
None of these apartment complexes have security cameras? Unbelievable. Maybe it is time for ALL of those complexes to start installing them and to make a big public announcement. I would bet the fires would stop.
These fires sound like what went on several years ago around campus with dumpster fires.
The chances are 99.9 that whomever is setting the fires lives very close to the area.
Cameras. J/W cover the story of installation and then sit back.
nbj688 5 months, 3 weeks ago
I wouldn't publicize the cameras. Then like you said he will stop. However, he might likely start again somewhere else. Should just set up cameras quietly and try to catch him. I heard that police are sitting in their cars at some of the complexes. Well that just scares him away and then they will never catch him.
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