Set Fires Damage 2 Abortion Clinics

Investigators say fires at two abortion clinics here early Tuesday were intentionally set and likely connected.

Firefighters responded at 1:11 a.m. to a blaze at the Carolina Women’s Clinic, just outside the city limits. Kerosene or some other accelerant was spread on the back door, which was scorched.

About 15 minutes later, someone threw a a Molotov cocktail, a bottle filled with gasoline with a lighted rag for a fuse, on the roof of the Hallmark Clinic. It burned a hole in the roof, damaged the ceiling and caused smoke and water damage, police Capt. Brad Chandler said.

No injuries were reported in either fire.

The preliminary investigation indicates the fires were connected, Chandler said.

Fayetteville is in southeastern North Carolina.

No warning was given before the incidents occurred, Roberto Rivera of the Fayetteville Police Department told a news conference.

Cumberland County Sheriff Earl “Moose” Butler said police were following several leads but had no suspects.

The first and more severe attack left the Hallmark facility with smoke and water damage to its roof and attic areas. The other clinic had its back door scorched.

Authorities confiscated a ladder leaning against the side of the Hallmark clinic. Police said they believed it had been used to gain access to the roof.

The clinics were closed Tuesday, but representatives for both said they would reopen today.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were called in to investigate.

A fugitive wanted by the FBI, Eric Robert Rudolph, faces charges stemming from the Jan. 29 bombing of an Alabama women’s clinic that killed an off-duty policeman and critically injured a clinic nurse.

He also is wanted for questioning about three similar Atlanta blasts, including the July 1996 bombing of Olympic Centennial Park that killed a Georgia woman.

Rudolph was believed last month to have been hiding in western North Carolina.