Keeping your arse-on!

From Texas, we start with a bit of gallows humor: Mortgage fraud burns homeowners.

A charred, gutted home on a small street of foreclosed homes in Spring is more than just an empty dwelling – it’s a sign of a disturbing new pattern in mortgage fraud.

Harris County arson investigators said finding the cause of the fire at the house was easy.

Explosions rocked the 7,000 square foot building Sunday afternoon when the owner was in the Bahamas.

The Fire Marshal said there were 25 five-gallon containers of gasoline stashed all over the home that were ignited simultaneously.

The blaze came less than three weeks before $30,000 in property taxes were due.

Then from sunny Atlanta, we have Former Firefighter Faces Arson Charges.

Arson charges against a former Lexington County firefighter.

Forty-eight-year-old Robert John Livingston faces three counts of arson related to two overnight fires in Red Bank on Tuesday and a third fire in a bathroom at a Lexington gas station June 18th.

Lexington County authorities say the Red Bank fires involved a vacant mobile home around eleven Tuesday night followed an hour-and-a-half later by a fire set to a home.

There were no injuries in either blaze, but damage to the house is estimated at nearly $100,000.

And from Ithaca in New York, we have Officials: Arson caused West End fire.

Arson was the cause of a fire at a West End apartment Tuesday evening, according to Ithaca fire officials.

The Ithaca Fire Department responded to the fire at 634 W. Seneca St. at 6:52 p.m., fire officials said, and doused the flames in about 20 minutes. No one was injured, but the fire caused significant damage to a building.

From Fresno in California: Arson blamed for house fire.

Arson was responsible for a fire early today that destroyed a vacant house at 146 N. Glenn Ave. just north of downtown Fresno, fire investigators reported.

The loss was estimated at $200,000. The fire was reported shortly after 4 a.m.

Investigators said the house was being renovated and that electrical power to the property had been shut off for three days.

From Charlotte in North Carolina: Arson probed in duplex fire.

No injuries were reported overnight in a fire at a duplex in northwest Charlotte.

The fire was reported about 1 a.m. at a building on McArthur Avenue, off LaSalle Street.

Authorities say the fire broke out in a unit that was unoccupied. Residents of the occupied part of the duplex were able to escape safely, and firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze.

From Indiana: Authorities say another fire caused by arson.

Fire investigators blame an arsonist for a fire early Monday that destroyed a vacant mobile home.

Vigo County Arson Task Force investigator Josh Sittler said the fire, in the 3000 block of Larrison Street, started inside the bedroom and hallway area of the home around 12:13 a.m.

Though it took crews just 20 minutes to get the fully-involved blaze under control, they worked the fire for four hours on the scene.

No utilities were hooked up and all other causes were ruled out, he said.

Just the beginning of the arson cycle, folks. Just the beginning!