One month, 14 fires, one big arson investigation(Coatesville, Pa)

CNN ^ | 01/ | CNN

[Kid Shelleen]

The fourteenth suspicious fire in a month's time hit a small community near Philadelphia before dawn Sunday.. The seven-alarm fire in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, damaged more than a dozen homes and caused nearly $2 million in damage, according to city spokeswoman Kristin Geiger.

No residents were injured, she said.

It took 150 firefighters three hours to bring the blaze under control, and one firefighter broke his ankle, CNN affiliate WPVI reported.

[Kid Shelleen]

**** Philly Metro/Delaware Valley Ping ****

[pnh102]

Calling Coatesville a “community” is quite a stretch. For those of you not familiar with the area, it is a crime-infested ghetto.

[organicchemist]

My old hometown. Used to be a reasonable steel mill town, but that way of life is gone. It has been in the death spiral for some time now.

[Malacoda]

I'm right down rt. 30, in Downingtown. Coatesville has become increasingly scary in the last two years, and we're starting to see some of their issues drifting in to Caln, Thorndale and D'town.

There was even a shooting at the Palace Bowling Alley last weekend -- and there has never been a problem there before.

[Clemenza]

Amazing, with all the nouveau riche and corporate types that have moved into ChesCo over the past 15 years that there was no attempt to gentrify Coatesville. Downington has always struck me as a rust belt town surrounded by suburban tract houses (my uncle lived in the latter until quite recently).