Emerald City's 2008 arson spree seems to be having a reprise, after a short winter season respite. The Standard-Examiner reports that Ogden firefighters responded last night to a suspicious fire at 1893 Childs Avenue, squarely in the heart of the Ogden River Project area... the blighted river front acreage to which we affectionately refer as Leshemville, to be exact:
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There are a couple of aspects of this story that we found to be particularly interesting:
Less than four minutes after the call came in at 10:15 p.m., Ogden Fire Department and police had arrived at 1893 Childs Avenue to find fire burning in an empty, boarded-up house, with the blaze spreading into the attic. At that point, it was a matter of protecting the surrounding property, said deputy chief Chad Tucker.[...]We don't know whether it was a particularly hot fire or not. Nevertheless, we wonder what might have happened if this fire had gone undetected, and the Ogden Fire Department had not quickly arrived on the scene. With the fresh spring vegetation, the entire neighborhood could have been engulfed. Imagine the situation a month or two hence, when that neglected vegetation (and adjacent abandoned wooden and vinyl-clad structures) would have been more thoroughly dried out by the summer heat.
Within minutes of the firefighters cutting a hole in the roof, the old home was engulfed in high flames, which melted the siding on the neighboring house to the north.
We thought this tidbit to be quite interesting too:
[Deputy chief Chad] Tucker said this was the first fire in this area in several months and because the neighborhood was scheduled for already demolition, the fire department was planning to drill fires for homes in the area [Emphasis added].That's what we'd call making the best of an already bad situation... Leshemville demolition and site prep on the cheap... courtesy of the taxpayers and the OFD.
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