The fire at the vacant house at 43 Gloucester St. in December was ignited by someone who lit a fuel-soaked pile of materials, says city Fire Marshal Anthony DiGiulio, seen viewing the property last month. Journal photo / Andrew Dickerman

PROVIDENCE — City Fire Marshal Anthony DiGiulio wrestled aside a broken fence gate to get into the backyard of an empty one-story cottage at 43 Gloucester St. in the Wanskuck neighborhood. He poked into the fire debris that lay in heaps outside.

Stepping gingerly on the broken glass thickly strewn around the grass, DiGiulio pulled away a small piece of plywood that was propped up against the foundation. The board provided no security except to block rain and snow from falling through a window into the basement.

“This is something I’ll report to the building department later,” he told the men with him on his visit to one of the arson-ravaged houses of Providence.

DiGiulio spoke softly, almost as if to himself.

“If the bank owns it now, it will probably just try to sell it as it is,” he commented.

When real estate values went into a tailspin in the late 1980s, the number of arson fires flared up. Some people gave up on their houses or small commercial buildings and walked away, leaving them tempting targets for fire-setters.

Now that mortgage foreclosures are rising fast, Fire Department leaders are worried that the phenomenon will repeat itself. Mayor David N. Cicilline has called the foreclosure situation a crisis that is damaging Providence’s economy.

So firefighters have canvassed their districts, logging the vacant buildings that they spot, in a campaign to have them boarded and secured against vandals.

“If it’s not occupied, then it’s got exposure to arson,” said Michael J. Dillon, assistant fire chief for operations.

And for each vacancy, they have made notes that would prove helpful if a fire does occur, such as the locations of the nearest fire hydrants; the preferred route to the site, taking into account blocked streets; the best spots for fire trucks to be positioned; the presence of trees or utility wires that might be in the way; and the proximity of other structures.

“We like to be prepared,” said DiGiulio.

43 Gloucester St. is instructive. On Dec. 9, firefighters raced to the house when flames leaped up in the basement, having been ignited, according to the fire marshal, by someone who lit a fuel-soaked pile of materials. The house was vacant, with a sign posted on the front by a real estate or lending company.

Several cans of lighter fluid were found in the basement and backyard. Someone had taken advantage of a foreclosure and eviction to set a fire, DiGiulio said.

After real estate values sagged in the late 1980s, the number of arson fires increased over the ensuing few years by about 27 percent, according to Fire Department data.

For example, there were 245 arson fires in Providence buildings in 1989 and, by the end of 1992, the annual figure was up to 310, or a difference of about 27 percent. There is always a lag between the time that the foreclosure process begins, a vacancy or outright abandonment occurs, and a fire breaks out, officials said.

“Before you know it, the copper piping is getting stripped out, the fixtures, the boiler gets taken out,” and then a fire occurs, DiGiulio said.

So far, according to DiGiulio, there is no evidence of an upsurge in arson fires in buildings due to the higher number of foreclosures. But the threat is clear, officials contend.

The number of adjustable-rate mortgages reaching their reset periods on houses in Providence is expected to hit a peak next month, according to DiGiulio, a member of a mayoral task force on foreclosures. That means some hard-pressed homeowners must refinance, if they have the wherewithal, or begin paying a higher interest rate than they might be able to handle.

The city has no reliable figure for the number of vacant industrial, commercial and residential buildings, but it is working on that calculation, according to Karen Southern, spokeswoman for Cicilline.

An incomplete list compiled by the Fire Department, which does not reflect an exhaustive lot-by-lot survey, shows 524 vacant buildings. Dillon, who has been a department member for 33 years, said that for as long as he can remember, the number of vacant buildings at any one time has ranged between 700 and 1,000.

There are 33,000 residential structures in Providence, and, according to Southern, a mortgage has been foreclosed on 750 of them.

The mayor has been taking steps to get vacant houses reoccupied. One initiative is a program offering no-interest loans to people who will buy a house that a lender has retrieved in a foreclosure. The loans are intended to pay for repairs to the house because foreclosed houses often fall into such disrepair that a lender will not finance a purchase.

To be sure, the number of structure fires in Providence has decreased sharply over the years. The department investigated 1,112 structure fires in 1980 and 1,193 in 1981, for example. In contrast, the department had to investigate only 371 in 2006 and 300 last year. Virtually all structure fires are investigated.

And there are many fewer confirmed arsons: In 1980, there were 496, and in 1981, 614.

But in 2006 and last year, there were only 110 and 76, respectively.

One reason for the decline in arson, according to Dillon, is that arson-for-profit has been virtually snuffed out in Rhode Island since the 1970s because the insurance industry clamped down on payouts for suspicious fires.

“…That’s when the bottom fell out of arson,” Dillon remarked. “Nobody breaks into your building and sets it on fire for the hell of it.”

Over the years, Dillon said, the department also got better at investigating and prosecuting arson.

He harked back to the early to mid-1970s, when the threat of structure fires was much greater. One property owner, he recalled, snapped up 56 buildings cheaply, mostly in the West End, acquired insurance and went on an arson spree.

“He’d buy them, then he’d burn them, and then he would collect on them,” Dillon said. “He burned almost every one of them.” While law enforcement had its suspicions, the chief recalled, they never had enough proof to prosecute the man.

The 1970s, which was a period of social unrest, was perhaps the busiest modern era for city firefighters. The Fourth of July, senior firefighters remember, became an excuse for people in poor neighborhoods to set fire to anything that might burn, from houses to motor vehicles to heaps of debris.

Dillon remembered in particular Fourth of July night 1976, when the city seemed to be on fire. The department made 215 runs from 7 p.m. to midnight. Providence firefighters had help from Cranston — until a big fire erupted at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet and Cranston had to recall its trucks.

The recently renewed vigilance on arson is the result of a memorandum from Fire Chief George S. Farrell last fall.

“We knew that Halloween was coming up, and in the past we’ve always had problems on certain holidays, such as the Fourth of July and Halloween, [when] people get itchy and rambunctious,” DiGiulio said. Farrell ordered all fire companies to refresh their lists of vacant buildings and to have the lists centrally compiled.

Veazie Street has been one of the problem spots. From April 2007 through mid-December, according to department records, at least five suspicious fires have struck a cluster of foreclosed and vacant multifamily houses.

There have been three confirmed arson fires at 190 Veazie alone. On April 22, three separate fires were set in the two-story house; on July 24, two separate fires; and on Dec. 9, one. Although the house had been boarded up at least by the time of the second blaze, someone pried the boards loose and got inside.

DiGiulio said there is a lag between the time a building becomes vacant and the time a fire-setter notices.

“If we get an increase” in building arsons during this real-estate decline, “it will probably be in the middle of this year or toward the end of the year,” he predicted.

The Providence Fire Department arson hot line is (401) 455-3473, or (401) 455-FIRE. The department asks people to call if they see someone entering a vacant building or something else suspicious. “They can remain anonymous,” DiGiulio said. It is preferable, he added, if a caller leaves a name and/or a telephone number so the department can call back for details.

gsmith@projo.com