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Tag Archives: arson
Thailand: Multiple bomb and arson attacks rock country’s south
The bombings and arson attacks happened after midnight and targeted convenience stores and a gas station across three provinces, lightly injuring at least seven, according to police and military statements.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks so far.
Provinces in southern Thailand along the border with Malaysia have seen a decades-long, low-level insurgency, in which the Thai government has battled shadowy groups seeking independence for the predominantly Muslim provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and parts of Songkhla.
More than 7,300 people have been killed in the conflict since 2004, according to the Deep South Watch group, which monitors the violence.
Peace talks that began in 2013 have faced repeated disruptions.
Wednesday’s attacks came after the Thai government earlier this year restarted discussions with the main insurgent group, the Barisan Revolusi Nasional, after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic.
The Patani United Liberation Organisation (PULO), which was sidelined from the latest round of talks, carried out bombings during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, claiming the dialogue is not inclusive. The government has said it is ready to talk to all groups.
The organization’s leader, Kasturi Makhota, told Reuters Wednesday’s attacks have “nothing to do with PULO.”
Trump fan Denis Molla charged after faking politically motivated arson
“It just shocked me,” Molla told WCCO hours after the incident. “This kind of stuff should not happen, especially over beliefs of some sort.”
But prosecutors have concluded almost two years later that Molla staged the entire incident.
Federal authorities announced Tuesday that Molla, 29, has been charged with two counts of wire fraud for filing fraudulent insurance claims and benefiting from online fundraisers connected to the faked arson event.
Prosecutors allege that Molla filed a claim with his insurance company for more than $300,000 and received about $61,000. He later accused his insurance company of “defrauding him.” Molla also used donations from his “Patriots for the Mollas” GoFundMe account for a deposit of more than $17,000 into his personal bank account, according to charging documents.
Shortly after the incident, Molla and his wife, Deana, had told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that they, along with their 2-year-old son and 5-month-old daughter, were asleep in the house when the camper was set ablaze. He had initially reported to authorities that someone set his camper on fire, and told local media he had seen three people running from his home.
“In reality, as Molla well knew, Molla started his own property on fire, Molla spray-painted the graffiti on his own property and there were no unknown males near his home,” prosecutors said in charging documents.
Molla, of Brooklyn Center, Minn., was released from custody without bail based on a promise that he would appear in court, according to court documents. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Wednesday.
If he is indicted on one of the federal wire fraud charges, Molla could face a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
The announcement of the charges came the same day that the Jan. 6 committee held another hearing in which it attempted to tie former president Donald Trump to the most violent extremists leading the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The committee again pressed its argument that Trump knew what he was doing and should be held responsible. On Tuesday, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) argued that Trump was, at the very least, “willfully blind” to the fact that his own advisers were telling him that he had lost the election to Joe Biden.
“President Trump is a 76-year-old man. He is not an impressionable child,” Cheney said. “Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices. … Donald Trump cannot escape responsibility by arguing he is willfully blind.”
First responders arrived at the home in Brooklyn Center just after 3 a.m. on Sept. 23, 2020. The fire from the camper ended up burning down the detached garage, totaling three vehicles and inflicting minor damage on the home. Police said at the time that first responders helped retrieve three dogs and four puppies from the home, according to the Star Tribune.
“I heard just a big, loud boom, or a bang,” Molla told WCCO at the time. He said he recalled thinking, “What’s going on?”
The family told the CBS affiliate in 2020 that Molla, a contractor, got the flag about a week after he had a workplace dispute over his support of Trump. Molla, who claimed at the time that people had driven by the house slowly when he had the Trump flag up, told KARE last year that he saw three “figures” in his yard the night of the fire, and claimed that one of those people dropped a matchbox as he chased them away.
“Our family’s safe, that’s the main thing,” he told WCCO hours after the incident. “All this is material, it’s all material. It’s not as important as our family.”
That didn’t stop Molla from filing hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance claims, according to prosecutors. When his insurance company rejected some of his claims, Molla claimed he was being defrauded, and he threatened to report the alleged bad practice to the Minnesota Department of Commerce and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D).
Molla’s case gained national attention. Two GoFundMe fundraisers in support of Molla were up for nearly two years. (They appeared to have been taken down Wednesday.) The story was promoted by conservative and right-leaning media, including Fox News host Laura Ingraham.
“This is a message being sent by the far left, and I think people are beginning to see that arsonist behavior, looting, even murder — none of it is off the table,” Ingraham said at the time.
Yet an investigation conducted by the FBI and the Brooklyn Center Police Department found that Molla, and not a person or group of people, was responsible for the arson and vandalism, authorities said.
It’s not the first time a Trump supporter has staged a fake incident and pinned it on someone else. In 2017, Stephen Marks admitted to spray-painting playground equipment at a Hartford elementary school in an effort to frame liberals and Democrats. Marks, who wrote phrases such as “Kill Trump,” “Left is the best,” “Bernie Sanders 2020” and “Death to Trump,” was charged with third-degree criminal mischief and breach of peace, and he was ordered to stay away from the school, the Hartford Courant reported at the time.
Amber Phillips contributed to this report.
Fire at Wisconsin anti-abortion office investigated as arson
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Vandals struck an anti-abortion group office, where a fire broke out and a Molotov cocktail was found, authorities said Sunday.
Madison police spokeswoman Stephanie Fryer told the Wisconsin State Journal that the fire reported shortly after 6 a.m. Sunday at the Wisconsin Family Action office in Madison was suspicious in nature. He said someone also spray-painted a message outside the building. Federal officials and the Madison Fire Department are helping with the investigation.
No one was injured, and officials were still working to determine how much damage the fire caused.
It wasn’t immediately clear who vandalized the building, but the message “If abortions aren’t safe then you aren’t either” was spray-painted on the building.
“It appears a specific non-profit that supports anti-abortion measures was targeted,” Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said in a statement.
The president of the lobbying group, Julaine Appling, said she considers the fire a “direct threat against us” given that it happened just a few days after a draft of a U.S. Supreme Court opinion was leaked suggesting the court may soon overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in this country. She said people could have been hurt if they had been working in the office at the time.
“This is the local manifestation of the anger and the lack of tolerance from the pro-abortion people toward those of us who are pro-life,” Appling said, who said investigators found the remnants of at least one Molotov cocktail.
Appling said her group won’t be intimidated by the vandalism.
“We will repair our offices, remain on the job, and build an even stronger grassroots effort,” Appling said. “We will not back down. We will not stop doing what we are doing. Too much is at stake.”
Wisconsin politicians from both parties, including Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, swiftly criticized the vandalism Sunday.
“We condemn violence and hatred in all forms, including the actions at Wisconsin Family Action in Madison last night,” Evers said in a tweet. “We reject violence against any person for disagreeing with another’s view. Violence is not the way forward. Hurting others is never the answer.”
Johnson said the actions shouldn’t be tolerated.
“This attack is abhorrent and should be condemned by all,” Johnson said.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tom Nelson also denounced the vandalism.
“I am committed to protecting women’s rights – but we must do it the right way,” Nelson said. “Violence and destruction are not the answer. I’m glad no one was hurt.”
Two Republican candidates for governor, former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and Kevin Nicholson, both weighed in.
Nicholson said the vandalism was “disgusting behavior from the left,” though he did not elaborate or provide further details.
Anti-Abortion Group in Wisconsin Is Hit by Arson, Authorities Say
The headquarters of an anti-abortion group in Madison, Wis., was set on fire on Sunday morning in an act of vandalism that included the attempted use of a Molotov cocktail and graffiti that read “If abortions aren’t safe then you aren’t either,” according to the police.
No one in the group, Wisconsin Family Action, was in the building at the time, and there were no injuries reported. Although the Molotov cocktail that was thrown through a window failed to ignite, the vandal or vandals started another fire nearby, the authorities said. The fire burned part of a wall.
The Madison Police Department did not say whether it had made any arrests or whether more than one person was involved.
“We have made our federal partners aware of this incident and are working with them and the Madison Fire Department as we investigate this arson,” the department said in a statement.
The attack came nearly a week after the leak of a draft ruling by the Supreme Court that would overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. Wisconsin has a law banning abortions that predates Roe by more than a century, but Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, has said he would block its implementation. Wisconsin Family Action is a nonprofit political advocacy group that promotes conservative policies on several issues, including abortion, within the Wisconsin state government.
From Opinion: A Challenge to Roe v. Wade
Commentary by Times Opinion writers and columnists on the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
“There’s nothing we have done to warrant this. We ought to be able to take different sides on issues without fearing for our lives,” said Julaine Appling, the president of Wisconsin Family Action. “Had anybody been in the office, they would have, at a minimum, been hurt.”
The Madison Fire Department first received a call about the fire at around 6 a.m. on Sunday. Firefighters and police officers arrived shortly after and quickly brought the fire under control. Ms. Appling said that she heard about the attack later in the morning while preparing for a Mother’s Day brunch at her church in Watertown, Wis.
“I got a call from building management here saying there had been a break-in and a fire started,” Ms. Appling said. She then went with a team member to the building, where they discovered “the havoc and property damage.”
Ms. Appling said that her office was the main target of the attack. Two windows had been smashed, and water that was used to put out the fire had caused more damage. Ms. Appling said the graffiti was particularly disturbing. “As I drove up to the office and I saw that, my immediate reaction was surprise at how overt the threat was,” she said. The graffiti included an anarchist symbol and the numbers 1312, a shorthand for an anti-police slur.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin also denounced the violence in a statement. “Our work to protect continued access to reproductive care is rooted in love,” the group’s president, Tanya Atkinson, said. “We condemn all forms of violence and hatred within our communities.”
In a statement to The New York Times, Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, which works with Wisconsin Family Action, attributed the attack to left-wing extremists who aim to intimidate abortion opponents, and he vowed that they would not succeed. “We are grateful for the unwavering leadership of Wisconsin Family Action and the dozens of family policy councils around the country that are committed to the sanctity of all human life,” he added.
The north side of Madison, where Wisconsin Family Action calls home, is not a sleepy neighborhood. Directly off a busy street, International Lane, the group’s long brown office building is tucked next to the Dane County Regional Airport, among other nondescript corporate offices. All of the businesses were empty on Sunday morning, though a steady stream of cars passed by.
Ms. Appling said she and others at the organization had received threats in the past and that she knew that some people would be angry after the Supreme Court draft ruling was leaked.
The State of Roe v. Wade
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What is Roe v. Wade? Roe v. Wade is a landmark Supreme court decision that legalized abortion across the United States. The 7-2 ruling was announced on Jan. 22, 1973. Justice Harry A. Blackmun, a modest Midwestern Republican and a defender of the right to abortion, wrote the majority opinion.
“I knew automatically that anybody that took a position in favor of how the opinion was written should probably be paying more attention to their safety,” she said. Still, this kind of direct attack was shocking, and she said it had shaken her sense of safety.
“My inclination is I’m not terribly comfortable having our team come in on Monday,” she said. “I’ll probably have to come and have to deal with insurance and deal with building management. But I’m not sure I want people to come in and occupy, you know, the area in our office where we have lots of windows to the outside world.”
She also said she would be working on implementing new security measures in the office.
Madison Police said that arson investigators were working with the Fire Department to confirm the cause of the fire. In a statement on Sunday, the Madison police chief, Shon Barnes, acknowledged the heightened tensions in the community after the leaked draft and condemned the attack.
“Our department has and continues to support people being able to speak freely and openly about their beliefs,” the statement read, “but we feel that any acts of violence, including the destruction of property, do not aid in any cause.”
Bully chucks flaming tennis ball at 6-year-old boy’s face
A 6-year-old Connecticut boy was severely burned when a young neighbor doused a tennis ball with gasoline before lighting it aflame and tossing it at the child’s face, a report said.
Dominick Krankall was playing in his backyard in Bridgeport on Sunday when he was bullied by an 8-year-old boy who snatched gasoline and a lighter from the shed before coaxing the child to come near him, according to NBC New York.
“As soon as he walked down the stairs, the bully called his name and lured him over around the corner,” the boy’s sister, Kayla Deegan, told the outlet.
“In a matter of seconds he came back around the corner screaming, saying, ‘Mommy, they lit me on fire! They lit me on fire!’”
Kayla said the sadistic act was done on purpose and the neighbor has bullied her brother in the past.
“What he did was pour gasoline on a tennis ball, took a lighter, lit it up and just chucked it right at my brother’s face — and then ran away from him and watched him burn,” she said.
“Two months ago under the bully’s mother’s supervision, he was pushed into a wall and fell to the floor. And again, the mother refuses to admit her kid did it.”
Dominick was rushed to the burn unit at Bridgeport Hospital where he was recovering.
The family started a GoFundMe to help aid the child’s recovery. They received $162,000 in donations as of Wednesday night.
Suspect Charged With Arson in Fire at South Africa’s Parliament
CAPE TOWN — Prosecutors on Tuesday charged a 49-year-old man from a Cape Town township with arson, theft, housebreaking and possession of explosives in connection with the fire that gutted South Africa’s Parliament buildings.
The suspect, Zandile Christmas Mafe, is accused of starting the fire, which began early Sunday and was not fully extinguished until Tuesday morning. He was also charged with breaking state security laws, because the structure is a site of national strategic importance, containing the National Assembly and lawmakers’ offices.
Mr. Mafe, who lives in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha township according to court documents, did not enter a plea, although his lawyer, Luvuyo Godla, said he plans to plead not guilty. He remains in custody, and prosecutors have opposed bail, citing the severity of the charges.
Security officials arrested Mr. Mafe at the Parliament complex Sunday morning, spotting him shortly after the fire was reported. He was caught with stolen laptops, crockery and documents, according to prosecutors.
Mr. Mafe appeared only briefly in a packed magistrates’ court, not far from the gutted parliamentary complex in the city center, appearing disheveled in a faded long-sleeved gray shirt with denim shorts and dirty sneakers as he stood in the dock.
Standing behind a thick plastic screen, in line with pandemic regulations, he lowered his mask, allowing reporters to see his face.
Mr. Mafe’s lawyer said his client had moved to Cape Town about six years ago and did not have a job. He said his client denied setting the fire or carrying an explosive device. He accused the government of picking up a poor man because they needed to find a suspect, and using Mr. Mafe as a scapegoat for its failure to protect its own infrastructure.
“What interest would that poor man have in Parliament?” he said, speaking to reporters on the steps of the court.
Prosecutors, however, say that they are certain they have the right man.
“He’s got a case to answer for,” Eric Ntabazalila, a spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority, said in a telephone interview. “Based on the evidence, we went to court.”
He said that more charges were likely to be filed by the next court appearance. That is scheduled for Jan. 11, to allow investigators to access the site, which remains dangerous.
The fire was only extinguished early on Tuesday, according to JP Smith, Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for safety and security. Firefighters will continue to monitor the buildings.
On Monday afternoon, the fire flared up in a roof. Cape Town’s strong southeasterly wind, combined with wooden floorboards, years of dust and recently replaced bitumen — an asphalt used to seal the roof — created conditions for the fire to resume.
By midnight, the fire was brought under control, and teams of firefighters worked their way through what Mr. Smith described as a “labyrinth” of rooms to locate and extinguish other potential hot spots, winding lengths of hose through a “maze” of passages.
More than 60 firefighters battled the blaze, supported by crew from South Africa’s Air Force. At one point, the wind was so strong that firefighters could not risk using aerial platforms.
Instead, Mr. Smith said, they pulled “death-defying Spider-Man moves,” climbing up the side of the building to prevent the fire from sweeping into Tuynhuys, the official office of the president and one of the oldest buildings in the city.
Zanele Mji reported from Cape Town, and Lynsey Chutel from Johannesburg.
Firefighters battle new blaze at South African parliament, suspect charged with arson
CAPE TOWN, Jan 3 (Reuters) – A new blaze broke out on Monday at the complex housing the two chambers of South Africa’s national parliament in Cape Town, one day after a devastating fire swept through the buildings. read more
“The fire and rescue service confirms that the fire at parliament has flared up. The void beneath the roof sheeting of the National Assembly is on fire,” a spokesman for the city’s fire services said on Monday afternoon.
Police have charged a 49-year-old man with arson and other offences including theft, and he was expected to appear in court on Tuesday.
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National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said the arson, if confirmed, would represent an attack on the country’s democracy.
The initial fire on Sunday caused the roof of the New Wing housing the assembly’s lower chamber to collapse. The roof of the Old Wing, which dates back to 1884 and houses the upper chamber National Council of Provinces (NCOP), also partially collapsed.
However, important sections including a museum with artworks and heritage objects were saved, as was an embroidered tapestry telling the story of the Eastern Cape on the ground floor of the Old Assembly Building, officials said.
Earlier on Monday firefighters had managed to extinguish most of the initial blaze. As the new fire flared, parliament said firefighters had been reinforced with additional equipment and personnel.
Firemen work at the parliament where a fire broke out in Cape Town, South Africa, January 3, 2022. REUTERS/Sumaya Hisham
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A Reuters journalist at the scene said the speed of the wind, a key factor in the Cape’s fire season, had increased significantly and could hamper attempts to douse flames.
A city update released around 10 p.m. local time (2000 GMT)said the fourth and fifth floors of the new wing, above the national assembly, were “completely gutted” as wind-fanned flames threatened historic Tuynhuys, the Cape Town office of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
“Heavy duty, aerial firefighting (equipment) have just arrived, that can operate within the current strong winds,” city officials said.
The parliament has played a crucial role in South Africa’s transition from white minority rule as the place where transformative legislation has been passed, helping roll back repressive policies implemented under the apartheid era.
In a separate statement, the elite Hawks police said the suspect was believed to have gained entry to the parliament through a window in one of the offices.
“There is a possibility of other charges being added as there was a security breach here,” Hawks spokesperson Nomthandazo Mbambo told eNCA television.
Speaker Mapisa-Nqakula said President Ramaphosa’s address to parliament, set for Feb. 10, would still go ahead. Lawmakers will still debate and approve the budget and committees will continue their work, parliamentary officials said.
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Additional reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo in Johannesburg and Shafiek Tassiem in Cape Town; Editing by Gareth Jones, Angus MacSwan and Richard Chang
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Osaka arson suspect identified, buildings to be checked
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese police on Sunday identified a 61-year-old man as a prime suspect behind a fire that engulfed a mental clinic in an eight-story building where he was a patient, killing 24 people who were trapped inside.
The government also announced plans to inspect tens of thousands of similar buildings nationwide. Authorities believe the massive death toll at the downtown Osaka building on Friday was largely because the fire made its only emergency stairway unusable.
Osaka police, which are investigating the case as arson and murder, identified the man as Morio Tanimoto. He is being treated in serious condition after he was rescued from the fire, police said. He has not been formally arrested or charged.
After verifying security cameras and searching his home, police said they suspect Tanimoto was responsible for setting fire to the mental clinic, an official at the prefectural police investigation department told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Kyodo News said Tanimoto was a retired metal worker. His former employer at the factory where he worked 2002-2010 described him as diligent and skilled. He quit without saying what he was up to, he said. Tanimoto trained at his father’s sheet metal factory in Osaka after finishing high school, but left after his brother took over the business and kept changing jobs, Kyodo said.
Some of his neighbors interviewed by local media described him as a gray-haired man who used to bicycle and hardly spoke.
“Nishi Umeda clinic for the mind and body” was on the fourth floor of an eight-story building in Osaka’s bustling business district of Kitashinchi, and was known for its support for mental health at work.
Police searched Tanimoto’s house on Saturday and found the clinic’s patient card.
Authorities are investigating how the smoke filled the floor so quickly that the victims became trapped. The fire that burned just 25 square meters (270 square feet) of the floor near the reception was mostly extinguished within 30 minutes.
On Sunday, Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Yasushi Kaneko, who is also in charge of fire and disaster management, said he had instructed a nationwide inspection of about 30,000 commercial buildings with three or more floors but only one stairway.
Kaneko said many victims could not escape and died because the Osaka building’s only stairway was not accessible due to the fire and they lost their way out. He said the ministry will set up a panel of experts to discuss safety measures.
Police quoted witnesses who saw a man walking into the clinic with a paper bag, which he put on the floor, right next to a heater by the reception desk, and kicked it. Liquid poured out, caught fire and the whole floor was in flames and smoke.
A security camera at the clinic captured the scene, in which the man is seen standing at the entrance as if blocking the way, NHK television said.
Witnesses and the investigation suggested that the victims gasped for air and struggled to find their way out of the clinic. Most were found to have collapsed while headed to the other end of the clinic, only to find no way out.
The clinic without an external stairway had several compartments for consultations and workshops along just one aisle, with the main counseling room on the far end of the floor. There was no prior violation of fire prevention codes at the building, officials said.
Two visitors who witnessed the beginning of the fire at the reception desk were able to run out.
Firefighters initially found 27 people in a state of cardiac arrest, including three who were resuscitated, officials said. A fourth survivor was brought down by an aerial ladder from a window on the sixth floor with a slight injury.
Some of the clinic’s clients who spoke to Japanese media said the clinic was popular and was always crowded with up to 20 people waiting, especially on Fridays when special counselling and programs were available for those preparing to return to work after sick leave.
The clinic’s psychiatrist, Kotaro Nishizawa, could not be reached since the fire.
Over the weekend, Osaka residents brought flowers, bottled water and canned drinks as offerings to the spirits of the departed outside the building.
The fire was a shocking reminder of the 2019 attack at the Kyoto Animation studio, where an attacker stormed into and set it on fire, killing 36 people and injuring more than 30 others. The incident shocked Japan and drew an outpouring of grief from anime fans worldwide. In 2001, an intentionally set blaze in Tokyo’s Kabukicho entertainment district killed 44 people — the country’s worst known case of arson in modern times.
Japan Fire May Have Killed Dozens, With Arson Suspected
TOKYO — Twenty-seven people were feared dead in a fire on Friday that burned through the fourth floor of a busy office building in downtown Osaka, the largest city in western Japan. The police were investigating the possibility of arson.
The fire was first reported around 10:20 a.m. and was put out a little more than 20 minutes later. Rescue workers were seen carrying people out of the building on stretchers, the national broadcaster, NHK, reported. There was one survivor, the broadcaster said.
The blaze burned an approximately 200-square-foot area of the eight-story building, located next to the biggest train station in the port city. The fourth floor, where the fire is believed to have begun, was home to a medical clinic specializing in internal medicine and psychiatry.
Police officials told NHK that a witness reported seeing, shortly before the blaze started, a man in his 60s carrying a paper bag that was leaking fluid.
With the reports of possible arson, the fire immediately brought to mind the 2019 blaze at an anime studio in Kyoto, another city in western Japan, in which an arsonist killed 33 people and injured dozens.
Before that, the last major fire in a downtown building in a Japanese city occurred two decades ago, in the Shinjuku neighborhood of Tokyo. Forty-four people were killed as they tried to escape down a blocked staircase.
Speaking to NHK, Ai Sekizawa, an expert on fires at Tokyo University of Science, called Friday’s blaze “shocking.”
“We don’t know the details yet, but small multi-tenant buildings sometimes have only one emergency staircase,” he said, adding that a fire near the exit could have led to death by suffocation or smoke inhalation as people tried to escape.
Hikari Hida contributed reporting.