More Foreclosures, More Home Fires

Add another scary phenomenon to the growing list of troubles that have emerged in the wake of the national housing crisis...

From Bloomberg:

The biggest surge of mortgage defaults in seven decades coincides with an increase in blazes in foreclosed properties led by states with the most repossessed homes, according to fire safety officials in Nevada, Massachusetts and Ohio...

"Home arsons follow foreclosure trends, with a lag," [Coalition Against Insurance Fraud spokesman James] Quiggle said, pointing to an increase after the last housing slump when the number of blazes reached 116,600 in 1992 from 111,900 in 1990. "We're facing a potential spike in arson like we've never seen before."

A National Fire Protection Association official says that nearly two thirds of all blazes in "unsecured vacant buildings" have been set intentionally, Bloomberg reported.

Making matters even worse, fires in vacant structures—such as those that have been foreclosed upon—present a more dangerous scenario for firefighters.

From Bloomberg, via Housing Wire:

Nationally, there are 3.7 firefighter injuries per 100 blazes in vacant buildings, compared with 1.9 injuries per 100 fires overall, [a fire captain] said in [a] report.