ST. LOUIS (AP) — Thick smoke billowed from the vacant, crumbling St. Louis house, but Benjamin Polson knew homeless people might be inside taking refuge from the January chill. So the 33-year-old firefighter went in. It cost him his life. …
The Spokane City Council is considering creating a registry of abandoned homes to prevent them from slipping into disrepair. The Washington council is scheduled on Monday to consider an ordinance that would require banks or other responsible parties to register …
Ohio’s big cities this year will raze hundreds of vacant homes that are a danger and a drag on neighborhoods, but it’s not enough to keep up with the backlog of empty buildings that number in the thousands. A proposal …
William Iser waits and wonders: Will his home be next? He watched as his street slowly became a shell of what it was. Firefighters were called to Dakota Street 31 times in five years to battle fires set in nearby …
A bill has been filed in the Texas Senate aiming to stop squatters from using an obscure law to move into vacant or foreclosed homes. The Dallas Morning News reports the bill filed last week would require prospective squatters to …
Investigators in Southeast Texas are trying to determine who’s been starting fires this week in vacant houses. The Port Arthur Fire Department says three structures were set ablaze during a 90-minute period ending early Thursday. KFDM-TV reports one firefighter suffered …
Police in Kalamazo, Mich., are reporting a string of burglaries in vacant homes in which the thieves seem to have been mainly interested in stealing copper pipes. Public safety Lt. Dave Ostrander says that “there have been 15 burglaries of …
Law enforcement officials in Racine are investigating whether a serial arsonist is behind a rash of suspicious fires on the south side of the city and in Mount Pleasant. The Journal Times of Racine reports that since June 6, police …