Governor Tours N.H. Town Plagued by Suspicious Fires

Gov. John Lynch visited a New Hampshire town this week where a dozen homes have burned this year, most considered suspicious.

Twelve Berlin homes have caught fire since January. Nine of them are under investigation.

Last year, the city launched a program aimed at inspecting all its multifamily homes, many of which are deteriorating and date back to the heyday of the paper industry, when the city’s population was more than double what it is today.

In January, three people were killed in a fire that gutted two apartment buildings, and two more buildings were heavily damaged in another fire in February. That prompted state fire inspectors to examine a number of buildings in Berlin.