NEWFANE: Suspicious letter received about apartment fire

Local News

August 19, 2009

Staff Reports The Lockport Union-Sun %26 Journal Wed Aug 19, 2009, 01:09 AM EDT

NEWFANE — A former resident of a Newfane apartment building destroyed by fire earlier this month has received an apparently phony letter from someone claiming to be with the Niagara County Sheriff’s Department.

A Jockey Road, Burt, man told sheriff’s deputies Sunday that his wife received a suspicious letter in the mail.

The letter, postmarked Aug. 6 and mailed from Buffalo, contained three sheets of paper — a letter addressed to the woman and two copies of articles from the Union-Sun & Journal about the Aug. 4 fire.

The fire destroyed the 12-unit apartment building at 2991 Lockport-Olcott Road. The blaze reportedly broke out in an apartment on the first floor and spread to the apartment above, then onto the roof.

Hours after the scene was cleared, the fire rekindled, and firefighters from several surrounding agencies responded again. Two apartments sustained heavy fire damage, and the rest of the building suffered heavy smoke and water damage.

Fourteen residents were evacuated from the building, which was deemed uninhabitable. In all, 30 residents lost their homes in the fire.

Investigators believe the fire began in an overloaded power strip.

The handwritten letter received by the Jockey Road couple suggests otherwise, saying authorities are looking into “disgruntled tenants” as possible suspects.

“We are in the process of locating past tenants of the Newfane Lockport-Olcott apartment building,” the letter reads. “We feel there may have been some things of yours left in the downstairs apartment that you occupied at one time.”

The letter, handwritten on lined paper, goes on to say the landlord provided investigators with the names of former tenants “so that you may be called in for questioning of the cause of this fire.”

“It looks now as though the overloaded power strip has been ruled out,” the letter says. “Police now feel the fire is a suspicious origin. And many disgruntled tenants are coming forward with problems they had with the owner. Please contact us as soon as possible for questioning.”

The letter is signed “Niagara County Sheriff Dept.” and includes a phone number, which does not correspond to any NCSD phone numbers.

The man told deputies he believed the letter was phony and wanted them to be aware of it.

He said his wife did live in the apartment building more than 20 years ago.

Deputies reportedly tried to contact the phone number in the letter, but there was no answer.

The letter was taken in as evidence, and the investigation is continuing.

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