ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - The Landmarks Association of St. Louis has expressed concerns about the recent trend of fires at landmark or historic buildings around the area.
The Mullanphy Emigrant Home, Clemons house, Second Baptist on Kingshighway, the St. Louis Stamping Company, the Karpeles Manuscript Museum and St. Liborious are all historically significant buildings that have burned recently, a trend that is concerning to Andrew Weil, the Executive Director of the Landmarks Association of St. Louis.
"They just been burning and burning and burning," said Weil, "It's really seemed to pick up in my mind the last three or four years."
Weil says he is suspicious of the fires due to the fact that all these buildings that have burned are buildings that would never have been allowed to be torn down.
"What makes it kind of suspicious is that these are buildings that would never be allowed to be demolished because of their significance and importance to the culture and history of St. Louis," said Weil, "None of these buildings would have ever gotten demolition permits, but they all burned, so building burns and becomes unstable and it isn't there anymore. Problem solved."
Weil worries that there's not enough investigation to these blazes and it could be too much of a trend to call it a coincidence.
"It's sort of written off as 'people broke into the building they started a fire after cooking drugs or something like that," said Weil. "They just walk away and I don't think that's really acceptable."
KMOX is awaiting an update from the St. Louis Fire Department on what they've determined about the cause of the fire.
However, Capt. Garon Mosby says if the fire has rendered the building structurally unsound, they do not go in for the safety of firefighters. Sometimes, several contributing factors could be at play, in which case, the fire is labeled 'undetermined.'
