Chief: No Pattern to Intentional Fires in Northeast Ohio

Youngstown’s fire chief says there’s no obvious pattern to a series of intentionally set fires that have destroyed at least 10 vacant houses in the northeast Ohio city over the past week.

Fire Chief John J. O’Neill Jr. tells The Vindicator the fires seemed to be “completely random.” He says that leads authorities to believe the fires aren’t being set by only one or two people.

Arson was blamed for a pair of fires that damaged vacant houses on Friday and two more intentional fires that destroyed vacant homes in the wee hours of Saturday morning.