Arson? - The 2010 Block Fire

  A fire started in The Gayety Show World viewing booth, fire dogs sniffed out an accelerant in that area, reports from locals stated that a massive collection of vagrants, employees and visitors are present daily and anyone could have been responsible.

  It looks like this is all we get on this subject for a long time. I'll continue searching and picking up the news of the day, but the city has been waiting for The Block to "fade away" and this is a great event for them. Never mind that the property burned was originally The Lubino Theatre circa 1907 (more details on this history to come) that was a huge attraction for all walks of life in Baltimore. It had a rich history, one that could have been restored, highlighted and sold for a good profit to tourists and business owners. But now, the history has been buried with the "investigation."These are some follow up articles recently published that discuss the findings of the fire investigation into the 5 alarm conflagration at 404 East Baltimore St earlier in December 2010.

   Read through some Block history in the Sin In Mobtown archives and you'll soon understand that the ruling of arson is far from a surprise. I highly doubt that the true arsonist and motivation will ever be revealed and that the investigation will quietly and quickly fade into the archives of City Hall. The powers that be on The Block, as mysterious as they may seem, have heavy hands in the politics of Baltimore. While no one can/is willing to prove a thing against these mystery people their actions throughout time sure show off their influence.

Check out these articles for more information:

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-12-15/news/bs-md-ci-fire-investigation-20101215_1_electrical-malfunction-arson-afternoon-fire - Baltimore Sun December 15 2010

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-fire-investigation-20101215,0,1608357.story - Video of Press Conference included with a detailed article on the investigation Baltimore Sun December 15 2010

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2010/12/16/5-alarm-block-fire-may-have-been-intentionally-set/#comment-9013 - WJZ/CBS written follow-up with a bit of their news footage on the follow-up investigation December 15 2010

http://www.adultfyi.com/read.php?ID=45455 - NSFW - Who Knew!? AdultFYI.com and DerekAndreWhay.com, the former an adult entertainment industry news site and the latter an adult entertainment news forum and archive, cover the follow-up story on The Block fire. It's brief, but the sites are worth checking out for interesting bits of news you never knew existed! December 17 2010

Lubin, the first big-time Jewish movie mogul and owner of  Lubino's Theatre on The Block of the early 1900's.

 Buy the book pictured above!

http://www.amazon.com/King-Movies-Pioneer-Siegmund-Lubin/dp/0838637280