Investigators seek man in connection with 7-alarm fire in Somerville(story deleted from WickedLocal)

[ron_newman]

This article was deleted from Wicked Local Somerville. I do not know why. I am reposting it here (with text from Google Cache) in order to preserve it.

Investigators seek man in connection with 7-alarm fire in Somerville

By Monica Jimenez
Wicked Local Somerville
Posted Jul 26, 2013 @ 02:15 PM
Last update Jul 26, 2013 @ 02:18 PM

Investigators are looking for a man in connection with a seven-alarm fire that destroyed two houses in Somerville and damaged at least four others on Calvin Street and Beacon Place July 25, according to a local contractor who was shown a photo of the man.

Investigators are looking for an older man, possibly between 45-65 years old, with a slender build, who was wearing a blue shirt in a photo being shown to people in the area of Calvin Street and Beacon Place, according to Cambria Street resident George Saropoulos of Diamond Edge Construction.

Saropoulos, who’s working on a building in the neighborhood, saw someone he believes was that man the day before the fire at 11 a.m., he said. The man appeared to be taking photos of one of the houses that was damaged in the fire, he said.

When an investigator showed him the photo, he immediately recognized the man, whom he had assumed to be an insurance adjuster, Saropoulos said. The man was in front of the house for about five minutes, but could have gone behind the house as well, Saropoulos said.

Comments

[squirrelitude]

Maybe Wicked Local deleted it because there's bad information in it that shouldn't be spread? Or perhaps because the police don't want the suspect to know that they have a lead on him.

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

In the past month there's been 4 other suspicious fires -- two fires at the same time, on two consecutive weekends -- so I'm sure the police and fire are very interested.

OTOH, maybe the suspicious picture-taking guy WAS an actual insurance adjustor.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Except that the article says that the witness saw the man in question the *day before* the fire, taking pictures. Makes it kind of unlikely that the man was an insurance adjuster, because he wasn't taking photos of the damaged building after the event, he was taking pictures *beforehand*. Unless there's a weird coincidence like one of the building owners had recently switched insurance companies and the new insurer sent somebody out to document the building's external condition or something.

Or am I reading that wrong?

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

psychic insurance adjuster?

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

You should pitch that at one of the cable channels, I bet you'd get someone to buy it.

[paulupton.livejournal.com]

The Somerville Journal article was properly removed. Somerville Police were provided with a photo of a man at the fire early and throughout the morning. His identity was unknown. His photo was shown to a few neighbors, one of whom identified him as a fire victim.

[cos]

In that case, why didn't they add a correction and update the title, rather than removing it and leaving people wondering?