Jul 24, 2008 5:49 pm US/Pacific
Drug Dealers May Have Torched Oakland Homes
OAKLAND (CBS 5 / KCBS / BCN) ―
Some West Oakland residents said they fear three neighborhood fires being investigated as cases of arson may have been intentionally set by drug dealers bent on revenge.
Kathy Kuhner and other people who live in the West Clausen neighborhood hit by the fires held a rally Thursday and urged authorities to mount an aggressive investigation of the fires.
The residents also called on Oakland police and city officials to do more to fight crime in their neighborhood.
The Victorian at 3232 Helen Street that Kuhner was renovating burned about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, just a couple of hours after an empty house also being fixed around the corner at 1208 30th and Magnolia streets caught fire.
Less than two hours later, a third property at 3050 Union Street that was recently put up for sale somehow caught fire.
Authorities determined that two of three fires were caused by arson; investigators said they found an incendiary device which they believe was used to start the two fires.
The fire on 30th and Magnolia was "suspicious," according to fire officials, but no witnesses had come forward and there was not enough evidence so far to call it an arson.
Oakland police spokesman Roland Holmgren said investigators also could not yet say whether all the fires were set by the same person or if they were in retaliation for the recent arrests of drug dealers in the neighborhood.
But Kuhner said aggressive drug dealers who openly ply their trade in the neighborhood had made threats to the owner of the Magnolia Street property after he cleared out several squatters.
"This is the first time we've ever seen something where they have threatened the citizens. They seem to argue with one another about turf, but now they're burning our houses down," she said.
The longtime West Oakland resident has been living in a house across the street while the work on her now burned-out property was being done.
She said she decided to take the risk of speaking out so that the neighborhood would not be held hostage by criminals.
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