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Arsons still plague New Castle neighborhood
A residents’ group is trying to combat the arsons and neighborhood blight.
NEW CASTLE, Pa. — Courtside, the east-side neighborhood near the county government center, endured two more arsons over the weekend.
This time, one of those arsons was at an occupied house instead of the usual vacant and abandoned properties.
“It was only a matter of time for that, I guess,” city fire Chief Tom Maciarello said Monday. There have been 40 arsons in the neighborhood in the past 17 months.
The occupied home was on Cleveland Street. The fire department got the call at 12:13 a.m. Sunday, according to its report.
The house was heavily damaged, Maciarello said. The owner will not be able to live there until repairs are made, he said. He said the owner was not home at the time of the fire.
The fire started on the back porch, where smeone lighted a pile of hay on fire, he said.
The second fire Sunday morning, at a vacant house at 406 S. Walnut St., was called in at 3:03 a.m., according to the department.
Someone threw something flammable through a cellar window, Maciarello said. The fire was contained to the cellar, the report said.
A citizens group called the Courtside Community Neighborhood Watch formed last month to deal not only with the arsons, but also the blight that has encroached on much of the neighborhood.
Residents have been patrolling the neighborhood in the overnight hours to be on the lookout for arsonists.
The Rev. Ron Wanless, pastor of Croton United Methodist Church, is helping the group organize. The group meets periodically at the I-CARE House on Court Street.
The Rev. Mr. Wanless said Monday he isn’t sure if a patrol was out Sunday morning.
“Patrols aren’t the whole answer,” he said.
Mr. Wanless said the group will need to work with the city.
“We’re probably gonna need to bring police in on this, too,” he said.
“We have to ask ourselves some hard questions. Why aren’t we catching these people? How can we catch them?”
Police Chief Tom Sansone said arsonists are particularly hard to catch and “hard to take through the courts.”
“You have to see someone coming out of the house,” he said, adding that it can take as much as an hour for an arson fire to become apparent from the outside.
By that time, he said, the arsonist is long-gone.
He said all people can do to help police is “keep their eyes and ears open.”
Phillip Douglass, who lives in the neighborhood and belongs to the watch group, said he believes “things have gotten better since we’ve been watching the neighborhood.”
He said he doesn’t feel discouraged. “I think we need to step up again.”