6 fires in 2 weeks put some in Centennial Hill on edge

Where there's smoke there's fire, and there is a lot of smoke coming from a Centennial Hill neighborhood near downtown Montgomery after two houses caught fire just around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday morning.

These are the fifth and sixth fires to occur in the past two months, all in this three-block radius, and both the neighborhood and Montgomery Fire Investigator R.C. Wood are suspecting arson.

Tuesday's fires occurred within minutes of each other. The houses, both abandoned, are located at 918 Grove St. and 1100 Hutchinson St. All six houses have been abandoned and either burglarized or stripped of copper, according to Wood.

"We're suspecting set fires on most of these," Wood said. "They've all been vacant structures."

Between the two streets, James Jackson stood on the porch of his house on the street he's lived on for 47 years. A few houses down is another fire-ravaged house and abandoned homes all around his property now pose a threat. With his family and children around him and the smoke from Grove Street drifting down the street, James can only worry about what's going to happen next.

"This doesn't make any sense," said James. "They're burning houses where people are living next door to them. Suppose we're asleep and our homes catch on fire too?"

James has lived in the Centennial Hill neighborhood for his entire life, and for the first time he's fearful.

"I'm scared for them," James said, pointing to his nephews playing on the porch. "I hope they catch (who did it), and they get punished for it."

Neighborhood resident Joshua Jackson, unrelated to James Jackson, said one witness standing with him after the fire on Grove Street described a man dressed in black exiting the house just before a "fireball" erupted from the side window.

The witness could not be found for details, but Joshua said he was certain that this fire was arson, not an accident. Neighbors used the house to sell drugs and burglars have broken in twice in the past three to four months, according to Joshua, who has been helping his grandmother Mary Felder take care of the house for the past five months.

"It's sad," Joshua said. "Neighbors had guys selling drugs over there. Guys would be standing on the porch. Somebody stole a microwave and a few things. It's just sad."

What is even worse, is that the house on Grove was where Felder's brother, Henry "Mo" Moore helped neighborhood children through the Moore Neighborhood Ministries before his death in November 2014.

Felder was at the scene with her son, Lawrence Moore who have been taking care of the home hoping to register it as a historical site. Both were saddened at the news and the decline of the neighborhood since "Mo's" death.

"Mo" had been mentored by Charles Langford, the Alabama state senator who with Fred Gray represented Rosa Parks in the famous civil rights case of the 1960s and served in the Alabama Legislature.

"I'm upset, very upset!" Felder said. "We lost a lot of Langford's things — plaques, pictures and newspaper articles. We had been taking care of the house since Mo's death."

Moore was previously featured in the Montgomery Advertiser and was named the Advertiser's Citizen of the Year in 1995. He was a Navy veteran who came back home and ran a soup kitchen in the Centennial Hill community in Montgomery where he grew up. There, he helped the neighborhood children with their homework, giving them warm grits in the morning as a reward for getting on the school bus.

"When Mo was alive, none of this was going on," Lawrence Moore said. "As soon as he passed, everything changed. People started breaking into things, setting things on fire. It doesn't make any sense."

There are no suspects or clear motives for the fires yet.

Anyone who has information should call MFD at 334-625-3916 or CrimeStoppers at 215-STOP.

Six fires in two weeks in Centennial Hill

There have actually been six fires in the neighborhood in the past two weeks. Here is when and where they occurred:

-- 1000 Hutchinson St. on May 23

-- 600 Grove St. on May 24

--600 Hall St. on May 24

--600 Maggie St. on June 18

-- 918 Grove St. on June 30

-- 1100 Hutchinson St. on June 30