FLINT, Mich. (AP) - A newspaper's analysis says that many vacant Flint buildings that caught fire since 2008 ended up burning multiple times.
The Flint Journal reports Monday that of the 1,631 suspicious fires at vacant buildings in the city from 2008 to 2012, more than a quarter involved structures that burned multiple times. In all, 416 structures caught fire multiple times during the period.
The report comes as Flint deals with a high rate of fires that's stretched thin the fire department.
One property was the site of nine suspicious fires in four years before it was knocked down in 2011. Today, the site is a vacant lot.
More than a quarter of Flint's housing stock is vacant, and the city had more than 2,280 buildings slated for demolition as of December.
