Arson Attack

Insurance fraud investigators began preparing for an expected rash of arsons by cash-strapped homeowners trying to avoid foreclosures as the subprime mortgage crisis deepened. But arsonists were not waiting for bank foreclosures. There were scary reports throughout the year of arsons even before the subprime meltdown.

A man charged with starting 18 fires in Queens, N.Y., said he set the blazes “just for fun.” A N.J. man was charged with setting fire to an abandoned house even while awaiting trial on an earlier arson. A task force began investigating a string of six fires that broke out in the Newport, R.I., last spring, three of them in one week. The Massachusetts Fire Marshal’s office said at least 10 recent fires in Provincetown on Cape Cod were deliberately set.

In Washington, D.C., the House approved legislation to set up a national registry to track convicted arsonists and require them to report to authorities on where they live or attend school.