ARSON: COMPLAINTS DOWN SHARPLY IN LAST 4 YEARS

Arson complaints in Cape Girardeau have dropped sharply in the last four years, falling from 23 in 1987 to four in 1991.

One arson investigator says he hopes the decrease is due to better arson enforcement.

Both 1990 and 1989 ended with three arson complaints in the city, down from five in 1988. The years preceding 1987 ended with 20, 11, 19, 15, nine and 23 complaints reported.

The numbers are included in the 1991 annual report of the Cape Girardeau Police Department, released this month.

Cape Girardeau Assistant Fire Chief Max Jauch, the fire department's senior officer, said the department has increased its number of arson investigators since 1986, when it started out with two trained and state-certified investigators.

"We have five trained (arson) investigators now and we're more aggressive in our determination," he said. "We try to do a more thorough investigation."

James "Butch" Amann of Jackson, a fire investigator with the Missouri Division of Fire Safety, said arson fires have dropped in Cape Girardeau County in the last few years. One of the main reasons, he said, is because of more thorough fire investigations.

Amann said adding that he is speaking just for Cape Girardeau County that the fire departments are looking more into the cause of their fires than in the past.

"Any time you have that ... you're going to see arson drop. That tends to scare arsonists because the more fires are looked at, the more chance of them getting caught." Arsonists, he said, like a fire department that just "rolls up the hose and goes home and doesn't care what causes the fire."

He said he has no figures to show the drop in arson fires in the county. Nationally, Amann said, arson fires have increased steadily over the last couple of years, due in part to the worsened economy.

Last year statewide, he said, the Division of Fire Safety investigated 1,263 fires, 719 of which resulted in criminal investigations either because they were arson fires or suspicious fires. The number reflects a slight drop from 1990, he said, when about 700 fires resulted in criminal investigations.

Last year, fires of a criminal nature killed 12 people and injured 32 across the state, said Amann. The same type of fires killed nine and injured 29 in 1990.

Jauch said Cape Girardeau's arson fires involve mostly homes. A few cars are burned, he said. In most cases, the people setting the fire use a flammable liquid.

Typically, he said, the situation involves someone after insurance money.

"Just off the cuff, an example would be people who can't meet the mortgage on their house or they've got a car they can't make the payments on or the insurance is too high. And they want to come out with something, so they do it for the insurance."

The fire department's job in a fire investigation is primarily cause and determination, Jauch said. The case is then turned over to Cape Girardeau police, who handle everything else. Lt. John Brown, head of the Cape Girardeau Police Department's detective division, could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

Jauch said 99 percent of the time in arson cases, an investigator with the fire department discovers the cause as arson. Sometimes, he said, the evidence jumps out at you, while other times there's a lot of digging to do.

"Predominately you would look for the burn patterns, where the fire started, eliminate all natural causes. That's pretty much it in a nutshell," he said.

Amann encouraged anyone with information about an arson fire to call the state's 1-800 arson hotline. The call can be made anonymously and can lead to a $5,000 reward for information that assists in solving the crime, he said. The number is 1-800-39-ARSON.