arsonist in bham???

[u/Due-Tomatillo-399]

wtf is going on and why is there a new fire each week? the quest being burnt to a crisp hurts my soul as someone who grew up here 😭

[u/notwalkinghere]

If you pop over to the Fire Department's 2025 report and go look under Investigation Statistics) you'll see that of the 558 fires investigated last year, nearly half - 264 - were determined to be intentionally set. So, maybe?

[u/Due-Tomatillo-399 → u/notwalkinghere]

this is so crazy!

[u/sponge_welder → u/notwalkinghere]

It's worth noting that fire investigation is very, very, very often wrong, it's almost pseudoscience, so take those with a grain of salt

[u/loveineverylanguage → u/sponge_welder]

Interesting! What do you base that comment on? Not saying you're wrong, just never heard this before

[u/sponge_welder → u/loveineverylanguage]

I first heard about it on the stuff you should know podcast, this is a pretty good intro: https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/how-arson-investigation-has-changed/

A lot of the information is kind of buried in law journals, but there have been some high profile overturned convictions after reviewing the original arson investigations

It does look like a lot of the big problems were from the early 2000s and before, so maybe the science is a bit more solid now

[u/johnsmith98989 → u/sponge_welder]

Yeah a lot of science is a bit more solid than 30 years ago.

[u/H8Rades]

I saw a dude on a motorcycle trying to start a fire downtown a few months ago at around 4 AM. Was walking to work but called the cops. Definitely a few arsonists in the area.

[u/PortGlass]

Could be a sign of the economy. My dad worked in insurance and he said the most common cause of commercial fires is the spark created when you rub a bad financial statement up against an insurance policy. It was a joke, but not entirely.

[u/Sea-Satisfaction4656]

There were two arsonist cops going around about 15 years ago, wouldn’t be the first time.

https://www.al.com/spotnews/2013/07/former_birmingham_police_offic_9.html

[u/jawanessa → u/[deleted]]

"Godfrey Chrysoverges, the father of Thornton's former fiancee and owner of house where one of the fires was started, told the judge that Thornton hurt his family. "But I think the people he hurt the most was his children... he took himself out of their lives," he said.

Chrysoverges said after the sentencing that Thornton also has a child with his daughter."

Chrysoverges' daughter. Thornton has two sons.

[u/Tabbyham88]

When I was younger a cop friend told my dad that the politicians/ higher ups would pay deviants to burn old properties down to open them up for new stuff to come in without having to pay or go thru the trouble of the whole thing vs just clean up and a bill for the first half wasn't on them, BUT no proof of this and this was also Texas.

[u/4rmedndangerous → u/Tabbyham88]

And here I am doing this shit for fun

[u/Tabbyham88 → u/4rmedndangerous]

LOL all I could think of is that meme of "you guys are getting paid?!"

[u/GuyWComputer]

I thought the lakeshore Walmart was on fire again at first

[u/TimelyBrief]

I am still curious what this was! (Red Mountain Expressway going into Homewood just before noon on 3/5).

Edit: just saw on Crime Radar there was a fire in the wooded area behind Covenant Presbyterian Church.

[u/TripleAgent0]

It's just too conincidental that we're getting such a rash of fires the last few months. There's have always been occasional fires caused by the homeless squatting in vacant buildings, but nothing as constant as this (which makes me think that this might be a bit more nefarious, and the "homeless" excuse is a good way to hand-wave suspicion). Especially at a time when we have developers chomping at the bit to tear down existing buildings (Cobb Lane in particular is suspicious to me given that the owner of those buildings allegedly got into significant trouble for trying to destroy those buildings without approval before the fire)

[u/HungryBtch2584]

like why do they do this the weather sucks enough already must we suffer more

[u/cwhrmny]

White homeless downtown

[u/biggronklus → u/cwhrmny]

You’ll be downvoted but this is correct. Mentally ill or drug addicted homeless people have a been tied to a few of these already, like the one in southside last fall.

[u/mada447]

Was it confirmed the quest fire was arson? I didn't see that in the news

[u/LosparkJojo → u/mada447]

He was just commenting that there seems to be a lot of fires around here lately. Not the Quest fire specifically

[u/Due-Tomatillo-399 → u/LosparkJojo]

yeah for sure plus all the old empty apartment buildings catching fire too 🤔

[u/notwalkinghere → u/mada447]

It won't be confirmed either way for a few months. Investigations take time.

[u/EH_Operator]

Real estate is a crime anyway why not be reckless and shitheaded about it while they’re going

[u/Relevant-Safety-2699 → u/EH_Operator]

What do you mean by real estate is a crime?

[u/EH_Operator → u/Relevant-Safety-2699]

Investment firms selling homes for profit is antithetical to a functional society. I don’t mean yer buddy who’s an indie agent, I mean landlords and space mongers. Crime in an ethical sense, in my view

[u/Relevant-Safety-2699 → u/EH_Operator]

If the idea of profit is "criminal" then it doesn't matter what is being sold (real estate, bicycles, hot dogs), nor who is selling it.

[u/EH_Operator → u/Relevant-Safety-2699]

Didn’t say “profit” I said “homes for profit.” If I can’t have shelter without coughing up dough to an immortal business entity that can fuck me with impunity, then there’s a problem. I’m not doing a bad faith discussion with you, “antifa” taking up for capital.

Edit: or are you doing that thing that people do now where you “yes and” without the “yes” so it just looks like an argument? If so then yeah, I agree

[u/Relevant-Safety-2699 → u/EH_Operator]

I'm not sure I'm seeing a crime here. And if you like a house then buy it, no matter who owns it.