Boyett: Arson swept like wildfire across the region in 1995-96
Boyett: Arson swept like wildfire across the region in 1995-96 Frank Boyett Fires start small. So, it seems appropriate that The Gleaner’s long-running coverage of a 16-month epidemic of arson began with three lines in the Fire Runs column of Sept. 7, 1995. Before it came to a sooty end on Christmas Day 1996, arson had claimed about 35 structures in the Tri-County area, including three churches, several vacant houses and mobile homes, and a workshop. Most of the burned buildings were barns; most of the local cases occurred in the Niagara and Zion areas. But it wasn’t just the Tri-County a...