A suspicious fire early Friday just down the street from another house that was torched by an apparent arsonist nine days ago has residents of a northwest Atlanta neighborhood worried that the blazes are the work of a serial arsonist.
The latest fire, which broke out just before daybreak Friday, destroyed a two-story duplex on North Avenue at Jetel Place.
Atlanta fire Capt. Tom Towhey said that while the cause of the blaze has not been determined, “we had fire in several different areas at the same time, and that’s a little bit unusual.”
On Nov. 9, a suspicious blaze destroyed a single-story, wood frame house on North Avenue at Charlotte Place, only four doors away from the duplex that burned Friday morning.
The resident of the house that burned last week, Titavis Harkness, had reported a day earlier that someone had tried to torch the house, throwing “some kind of firebomb” through the window. That first attempt to burn down the house was unsuccessful when the fire went out before it could do much damage, but the following morning, the home went up in flames and was destroyed.
Neighbor Denise Smith said the owner of the duplex that burned early Friday had hired someone to stay at the home “because there had been so many people breaking into the house, stealing fans, stoves, all that stuff.”
The house sitter wasn’t there when the fire broke out early Friday, Smith said.
Smith, who has lived in her home for 18 years, said there have been at least eight to 10 fires in the neighborhood in the past two years, and worries that the two most recent fires could be the work of a serial fire bug.
“I have an 11-year-old and she hasn’t slept since [last week’s] fire,” Smith said.
“I would like for the person who is doing this to get caught,” she said. “It’s a dangerous situation.”
The owner of the house that burned down last week, Elmore Statham, said the fire at his house and the one early Friday were “identical” and “very suspicious.”
Statham asked, “If they do these two, how many more are they going to do before they kill somebody?”
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