A series of unexplained suspicious fires has plagued this southern Indiana hamlet of 150 residents, leaving them frightened and distrustful.
“We’ve got a serial arsonist out there,” said Chief Deputy Richard Dixon of the Orange County sheriff’s department. “People are petrified. They’re afraid to go to bed tonight.”
The wail of fire truck sirens has repeatedly rousted residents and left them wondering when the next blaze will strike.
“We’re all just waiting for the next shoe to drop,” said Rhys Rhodes, a retired circuit court judge who has been awakened three times by a neighbor alerting him to look out his window at burning buildings.
Fifteen suspicious fires have been ignited in the last 10 months in Leipsic, a town with about 30 homes 35 miles southeast of Bloomington.
No one has been injured, but residents wonder how long that luck can hold out if the fires continue to recur.
The first of Leipsic’s 15 suspected arsons occurred on Sept. 6, 1997, when the vacant home of Phillip Foutch was heavily damaged. Foutch had been convicted hours earlier of conspiracy to commit murder in the shooting death of an Orleans man.
