Seattle Fire Dept Offers reward

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Reward offered in string of arsons in southeast Seattle

(Seattle-AP) -- Fire and police officers are investigating a
series of seven arsons in southeast Seattle over the past two
weeks. Fire officials say the fires are becoming more frequent and
more dangerous.
The Seattle Fire Department is offering a reward of up to ten
thousand dollars for information leading to an arson conviction.
Five car fires and two attempts at building fires have been set
in a three-block area of Martin Luther King Junior Way South.
Total damage is more than 11-thousand-500 dollars. Nobody has
been hurt.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

One question....where does the money come from? Is this built into the budget?

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Update August 7th

SEATTLE (AP) - A fire that gutted a two-story home in the north
Seattle suburb of Lake Forest Park has been ruled an arson.
The fire is the 15th suspicious Seattle-area blaze in a week.
The other 14 occurred in North Seattle. Of those, 13 have been
confirmed as arsons.
The Lake Forest Park blaze is prompting investigators to
consider whether a recent Seattle arson spree could be spreading
farther north.
"It fits within the pattern. We wouldn't be looking at it if it
didn't," said Doug Dawson, assistant special agent in charge of
the Seattle office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives.
In this case, a family of three was sleeping inside. As they
scrambled to get out, a neighbor who had spotted the flames called
911.
"The people that were in the house didn't have time to call,"
said Deputy Northshore Fire Chief John Lapsansky. "They had to
save themselves."
In most of the fires, on-site materials were used to ignite the
outside of the target building. Lapsansky said officials had not
yet determined what was used in Friday's fire.
"There didn't seem to be any debris," he said.
Lapsansky cautioned that "there has not been a positive link
between this arson and any other arsons going on."
The ATF bureau in Seattle has enlisted the help of two crime
profilers in Washington, D.C. - one an arson specialist, the other
an expert in the geography of crime scenes. ATF agents from field
offices in Spokane and Portland also have been called in to help.
"We're trying to use every available resource we have," Dawson
said.
Authorities do not know whether one person is responsible for
all the arsons.
"It could be a series of copycat fires," Dawson said.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)