Fire in C.R. flood home considered suspicious

An overnight fire that burned a flood-damaged home to the ground is considered suspicious, officials said.

Neighbors reported fire coming from the gutted house at 822 Penn Ave. NW around 1:30 a.m. Friday. When firefighters arrived, the house was totally consumed and flames were shooting high above the oak trees nearby, spokesman Greg Buelow said.

Crews were able to keep the fire from spreading to a nearby occupied home at 1715 Ninth St. NW. No one was hurt in the blaze.

No utilities were hooked up to the home, which neighbors said was without windows and doors. An official cause of the fire has not been determined.

The destroyed home was owned by James Grade, authorities said.

There have been at least 12 fires in unoccupied flood-damaged homes since the 2008 disaster. Buelow said officials who dealt with Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and a flooding in Grand Forks, N.D. have been surprised that there haven't been more intentional fires in Cedar Rapids.

Arrests have been made in some of the cases, including two teenagers last year and a 23-year-old man last month.

Buelow credited vigilant neighbors, along with police patrols and the threat of an arson charge, for the relatively low number of flood-zone fires.

“Those who have decided to build back their home, put blood, sweat and tears back into it, don't want to see this happen in their community,” Buelow told SourceMedia Group in August.