As Homeowners Move On, Fire Moves In

Flint's abandoned homes usually announce themselves by the boards covering their windows, walls ripped open and scavenged for pipes and aluminum siding. But at 1430, a pair of chairs hung from the porch. Blinds flapped from bedroom windows.

And as firefighters battled in, a terrible paradox was revealed. In a city and a nation awash in empty structures, one man's abandoned home can be another's man refuge — and sometimes his final resting place.

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If a fire destroys a home that doesn't really belong to anyone and is worth next to nothing, does it matter?

The nation's housing crisis is proving there are no simple answers, just unexpected consequences and difficult choices.

The vast majority of fires happen in occupied homes. But foreclosures, on top of depopulation in struggling Rust Belt cities, has pushed vacant homes nationwide to 19 million, up from 15.7 million in 2005, according to the Census Bureau. Fire is creeping into the void.

Fires in vacant homes rose 11 percent to 21,000 in 2006 — the latest year for which figures are available — while all home fires rose just 4 percent, the National Fire Protection Association reported in April. More than four of every 10 vacant building fires were intentionally set, the group reported.