Editor's Blog File

Jacksonville has a fire bug — someone mentally unhinged who likes to set fires.

So far, the fires have been at places where no one lives or at businesses where no one is about. That doesn’t make the person any less unhinged.

Arson like this is a tough crime to solve, because finding the criminal has little to do with police work. Most crimes have a motive of some sort that police can use to help them narrow down the suspects.

Instead, the two dozen suspicious fires going back about two years have presumably been for the fun of it by a mentally unstable thrill-seeker. The motive is all inside the person’s addled brain. There’s no investigating that.

Most likely, this string of arsons will only be solved by chance. Some random citizen — maybe you — will see something and tell police. Almost everyone has a cell phone now, so we can tip off police pretty quickly.

It could happen sooner or it could happen later, at any time, and each of us should have this in the back of our minds when we are out and about after dark.

Who knows? You might be the one who sees something odd on the way home from picking up a gallon of milk or after a dinner party at a friend’s house or some other late-night excursion.

Someone will probably see something, or the arsonist will make a mistake. All we can hope is that it happens before a firefighter is hurt trying to save an empty building or someone is actually in a building the arsonist thinks is empty.

Then we’re talking about something very, very different than a little excitement.

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