New Castle neighbors fight wave of arsons

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — They want their neighborhood back.

They want to take it back from the blight — the high grass, the falling porch awnings, and especially the abandoned houses that stand open to drug addicts, prostitution and squatters.

Kids like to play in the vacant houses that aren’t boarded up, and their dilapidated squalor makes for a dangerous playground.

The houses have been attracting other visitors, too: Arsonists.

Thirty-eight vacant homes in the city have been set on fire in the last 16 months. Fifty to 60 percent of those arsons were in the eight- to 10-block neighborhood called Courtside, which is behind the Lawrence County Government Center, said New Castle Fire Chief Tom Maciarello.

Five arsons in less than an hour and a half ripped through houses there in the early morning Nov. 8, and there were two between 4 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. May 24. Those fires were on Court, Ray, Mulberry, and Chestnut streets and Crawford Avenue.

At the I-CARE House, a community center on Court Street, neighbors now meet to plan a battle against the arsons and the urban decay that’s run down their neighborhood.

Read more in Sunday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com