Will serial arsonist strike Detroit’s east side for the fourth night in a row?

A serial arsonist appears to be targeting big houses in a two-block area on the city’s east side.

In the past three days, someone set fire to five houses in a two-block area of East Canfield and Garland. The blazes spread and consumed a total of nine abandoned houses and damaged four occupied homes. At least one firefighter was injured.

On Wednesday night, Rikina Boy was already on edge after watching six houses burn down behind her home Monday and Tuesday. Then the arsonist struck again – this time at the house next to hers. When she saw the orange glow through her window at 11:35 p.m., Boy gathered her three children and grabbed a handgun for protection on the rough block.

From a sidewalk across the street, she watched the siding on her house melt.

“I have a family to raise,” Boy, 33, cried. “I can’t live here no more. I am taking my kids and leaving. This is too much.”

While firefighters spent more than three hours preventing the fire from consuming Boy’s home, the blaze spread in the opposite direction, gutting three houses.

This morning, neighbors collected metal scraps from the rubble and speculated about who started the fire.

“I won’t be sleeping tonight,” Boy told me.

Tonight, we’ll be staked out in the area and will report back on what we find.

Steve Neavling is an investigative journalist and former city hall reporter for the Detroit Free Press. Got tips or suggestions? Contact Steve at [email protected]. 

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  steve

Steve Neavling

Steve Neavling lives and works in Detroit as an investigative journalist. His stories have uncovered corruption, led to arrests and reforms and prompted FBI investigations.

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