HINTON, W.Va. --  Laura Carter can be found on any given day sitting on her porch reading her mail, talking to her neighbors or just enjoying the view on the small street that winds up one of the many hills in Hinton.

Over the past two years, that view has changed.

Seven houses on State Street, directly around the elderly woman's house, have burned in a string of more than 20 arsons that have terrorized the town since December 2007.

The three houses across the street, the one on the right of her house, one directly behind her and two down the road have all burned.

"It's been that bad," Carter said of the fires.

For almost two years, fires have burned across the small town, causing many residents to fear that their home may be next.

When one of the houses across the street caught fire earlier this year, Carter said she stood on her porch screaming and crying.

"Someone asked me what I do that for, and I said 'well, I can't go up there and put it out myself,'" she said. "All I can do is cry."

Carter counts herself among the lucky ones because her house hasn't caught fire, even after all of the terrible events around her.

"God must be taking care of me," she said. "I'm thankful that He has been so good to me."

No M.O.

On Monday, Joseph Michael Brown, 29, was arrested in connection with two of the suspicious fires set in Hinton.

According to the criminal complaint filed in Summers County Magistrate Court, Assistant State Fire Marshal Robert Rhodes was investigating a suspicious blaze at 103 Grace St. on June 1.

Rhodes asked for K-9 assistance from the state Division of Forestry, and the dog allegedly followed the scent of an unknown male to Third Avenue the same night.

Police picked up Brown and on June 2, he admitted that he had been tracked by the K-9 and that he started the fire on Grace Street, according to the complaint.

Brown also admitted to intentionally setting a fire at 100 Temple St. on May 26.

"I think people in Hinton will calm down to some extent right now because people are seeing that we will eventually get to the bottom of this," said State Fire Marshal Sterling Lewis. "This may also give the other arsonist a wake up call: 'They haven't gotten me yet, but they might, so I won't push my luck.'"

Finding the common thread in all of the fires has been hard work, especially because all of the fires have been set randomly, using different accelerants and having different burn patterns, Lewis said.

"Unlike on TV, there is no M.O. that links everything together. It's been hit and miss," he said. "Some have been started one way, some have been started another way. Each one seems to be different."

Lewis doubts that Brown worked alone to set all of them, but was unclear when additional arrests will take place.

"It could be tomorrow, it could be two years, it could even be 10 years from now," he said. "We worked this case for two years, so I just don't know."

'Can't prevent it'

HINTON, W.Va. --  Laura Carter can be found on any given day sitting on her porch reading her mail, talking to her neighbors or just enjoying the view on the small street that winds up one of the many hills in Hinton.

Over the past two years, that view has changed.

Seven houses on State Street, directly around the elderly woman's house, have burned in a string of more than 20 arsons that have terrorized the town since December 2007.

The three houses across the street, the one on the right of her house, one directly behind her and two down the road have all burned.

"It's been that bad," Carter said of the fires.

For almost two years, fires have burned across the small town, causing many residents to fear that their home may be next.

When one of the houses across the street caught fire earlier this year, Carter said she stood on her porch screaming and crying.

"Someone asked me what I do that for, and I said 'well, I can't go up there and put it out myself,'" she said. "All I can do is cry."

Carter counts herself among the lucky ones because her house hasn't caught fire, even after all of the terrible events around her.

"God must be taking care of me," she said. "I'm thankful that He has been so good to me."

No M.O.

On Monday, Joseph Michael Brown, 29, was arrested in connection with two of the suspicious fires set in Hinton.

According to the criminal complaint filed in Summers County Magistrate Court, Assistant State Fire Marshal Robert Rhodes was investigating a suspicious blaze at 103 Grace St. on June 1.

Rhodes asked for K-9 assistance from the state Division of Forestry, and the dog allegedly followed the scent of an unknown male to Third Avenue the same night.

Police picked up Brown and on June 2, he admitted that he had been tracked by the K-9 and that he started the fire on Grace Street, according to the complaint.

Brown also admitted to intentionally setting a fire at 100 Temple St. on May 26.

"I think people in Hinton will calm down to some extent right now because people are seeing that we will eventually get to the bottom of this," said State Fire Marshal Sterling Lewis. "This may also give the other arsonist a wake up call: 'They haven't gotten me yet, but they might, so I won't push my luck.'"

Finding the common thread in all of the fires has been hard work, especially because all of the fires have been set randomly, using different accelerants and having different burn patterns, Lewis said.

"Unlike on TV, there is no M.O. that links everything together. It's been hit and miss," he said. "Some have been started one way, some have been started another way. Each one seems to be different."

Lewis doubts that Brown worked alone to set all of them, but was unclear when additional arrests will take place.

"It could be tomorrow, it could be two years, it could even be 10 years from now," he said. "We worked this case for two years, so I just don't know."

'Can't prevent it'

All but one of the fires has been set in abandoned or vacant buildings around the city within an eight-block radius of each other, said Hinton Fire Chief Ray Pivont.

"Every community has fires like this, but I don't know if anyone has had as many as us," Pivont said. "It taxes us. It really taxes us."

A lot of the residents here are scared because they live near or close to an abandoned house, said Gary Farmer, an engineer for the Hinton Fire Department.

"You can't go down a street without having a few abandoned homes," he said. "Every street, you see something that they might burn."

Pivont wonders why some of the buildings in the town haven't gone up in flames, and he makes a mental list of places he thinks will be hit next.

"It's best to be prepared, but you can't prevent it from happening," he said.

Members of the Hinton Fire Department, which is made up of four full-time engineers and almost 30 paid volunteers, have spent countless nights fighting fires, stretching their resources.

"We went over budget more than a month ago," Pivont said.

A home saved

On State Street, where a large majority of the suspicious fires have occurred, an arsonist set fire to an abandoned home directly behind the Camon Baptist Church.

The structure behind the church was engulfed so quickly that flames leapt over to the roof of the church before firefighters could stop it.

"It went up so fast," Pivont recalled of the night almost a year ago. "It got into the [church] roof up there and it all collapsed."

The night that the church burned, an arsonist also set fire to a home only 75 feet behind one of the Hinton fire trucks.

"When they do something like that, it's like they enjoy setting the fire right under our noses," he said.

Firefighters also worked that night to prevent another home from going up in flames.

"I got up because the dog was barking and when I turned around to go back to bed, I saw an orange glow," said Renae Gore, whose roof is less than a foot away from the church. "I was in shock."

Firefighters spent the better part of the evening spraying water onto the roof and side of Gore's house to prevent it from catching fire.

Gore is still amazed that her home had no damage from the fire, especially since she could feel heat coming from the walls of her home.

"Someone up there was watching," she said. "We're still here in this house and that's amazing."

Even so, she still worries about the fires in the town.

"You just don't know," she said. "Are they going to start setting fires now in places where people are living?"

Reach Kathryn Gregory at kathr...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5119.