• turtlesareneat@piefed.ca
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    11 days ago

    I’ve got photos of me and my neighbors in the house across the street from the Covid era. In the few years since, it went vacant, and then started getting break-ins and squatters, we chased them out many times. Then one morning last December, I woke up to see the house engulfed in flames. It was about 130 years old. One of about 6 old houses torched by squatters in my area in the last year…

    • tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      11 days ago

      I have seen cases where owners of the property will do that for the insurance claim, it’s hard to prove it’s not the squatters that started the fire, then they can tear it down more easily and build new structures. People squatting in abandoned buildings can definitely start fires though. How many buildings normally burn down in your area? 6 in one place in one year seems like a lot more than should be expected.

      • turtlesareneat@piefed.ca
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        11 days ago

        We know there was an arsonist operating a few miles away last year. They arrested him for starting a fire, and then released him the next day, and so a lot of us believe it’s him or another serial arsonist, yeah. But as you say, there are many rea$ons old houses burn down :(