Arson fire damages Chicago AIDS group's office

A fire deliberately set last week in Chicago's north side caused about $10,000 in damage to the offices of Test Positive Aware Network, an AIDS advocacy group, the Chicago Tribune reports. Police report that the fire was started when someone poured gasoline down a drainage pipe near the southeast corner of the roof of the building before setting it on fire. Also damaged in the fire were offices for U.S. representative Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), several state lawmakers, and a Chicago city councilwoman. "It looked like a bomb had gone off," Jeffrey Allen, event coordinator for TPAN, told the Tribune. No one was in the building at the time of the fire. Police say there was no reason to believe that TPAN or any of the building's other tenants were specific targets of the arsonist.