As Homeowners Move On, Fire Moves In

Yoesting bounced around the East Side before setting his sights on 1430. Cooper had bought the house as a rental property, before upkeep and taxes dragged him under. The house fell into legal limbo as it moved through tax foreclosure. But when Yoesting asked after it, Cooper handed him the keys.

The house didn't have water or electricity until Yoesting and a roommate jerry-rigged both. And it was a horrendous mess. But Yoesting and the little bungalow with the diamond-shaped window over the front porch looked after each other.

By last summer, Gordy Yoesting was fixing to buy the place.

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When two of Flint's abandoned houses caught fire in early 2007, it got Andy Graves thinking.

A firefighter was injured in the first. Soon after the second burned, the city tore down what was left. Nobody was in either. Were these places worth the risks firefighters were taking?

Graves, a primary captain for the Flint Fire Department, started tracking blazes in vacant buildings and found they accounted for 40 percent of all Flint's fires and more than 60 percent of firefighter injuries.