Three homes were set on fire Tuesday, one killed a 96-year-old woman

Three homes were set on fire Tuesday, one killed a 96-year-old woman

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Three homes were set on fire Tuesday, one killed a 96-year-old woman

The Caldwell County Sheriff's Office has released photos of a vehicle wanted in connection with three suspicious house fires on Tuesday.

Investigators said they are looking for a black SUV, believed to be a Ford Escape, with dark-tinted windows, driven by a man. The sheriff's office posted several pictures of the SUV on its Facebook page.

Authorities said that if anyone recognizes the black SUV in the photos, they should call the sheriff's office at 816-586-2681.

According to Caldwell County Sheriff Mitch Allen, firefighters first responded to a call at 8:40 Tuesday morning on Route D. The home was already on fire. Lorene Fickess, 96, died in the fire. The sheriff said her body was sent to the Jackson County coroner for an autopsy and to determine her cause of death.

While working that fire, Allen said the second call went out about 9:40 a.m. for a fire about a mile north on Route D. It was a home that Luetta Crowley lived in decades ago but had moved out of. The home was hidden by a large growth of trees and bushes but sat next to the Mirable School. Students were evacuated from the school to a nearby church and then sent home early because of the fire.

"When the second fire occurred, I didn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that these are probably connected. And then when the third fire came out, they definitely are connected," Allen said.

While firefighters were battling the Crowley fire, the sheriff said a call came in at about 10:40 a.m. for another fire on Route D. Again, it was an abandoned house. The sheriff said the fire did some damage, but firefighters caught it early enough that most of the damage came from the water used to put out the fire.

It's enough to put anyone on edge.

"Everyone is on edge," Allen said during a news conference Wednesday. "The community is on edge. People are talking, rumors are flying."

Everyone is concerned. In part, because it is difficult to fight fires in rural areas.

"Just because we're so isolated from help," resident James Colyer said.

Every firefighter who responded to the fires Tuesday is a volunteer. David Bethel is the head of Kingston's Public Works Department, and the Kingston volunteer fire chief.

"There is no real fast response time in the rural districts," he said.

Bethel estimated it took between 15 and 20 minutes for him to leave his job, get to the firehouse, and drive the pumper truck to Route D from Kingston.

"And that's just the way it is," he said.

Water was also an issue when fighting three fires in the span of two hours. Multiple trucks, tankers, and pumpers from surrounding areas responded – mutual aid is the phrase firefighters use – and many of those pumpers and tanks had to go back to area towns multiple times to get refilled.

"In the middle of (the first fire, at Lorene Fickess' home), we got a page for the second fire. My truck was out of water. We were waiting to get it filled," Bethel said.

He explained there aren't a great number of fire hydrants around the county the way it is in Kansas City or its suburbs.

"Trucks in the city are set up for like 500 gallons. But we need about 1,000 gallons because we know we're out there, and we got to wait on water," Bethel said.

"It’s hard to believe what goes through an arsonist's mind," he said. "The thrill? Do they like fires? We don't know. But I would like to ask him when I find him," Allen said.

There was a fire just before 7 a.m. Wednesday in Lafayette County.

Allen said he does not believe it is connected to the arsons in Caldwell County, but he also said, "I think every fire in northern Missouri will be somehow connected to ours for a little while — and that's to be expected. We welcome all tips, no matter how odd you think they may sound, we'll follow up on them."

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