Chief: Three fires; two investigated as 'suspicious'

Two homes under construction near the end of Richland Road in Auburn were destroyed by fire Sunday.

By: Katie Stallcup Staff writer | OANow.com
Published: August 19, 2008

The charcoal remains of two houses being constructed in a new Auburn subdivision still smoldered Monday afternoon after a fire Sunday night. At the same time Sunday, a house on North College Street caught fire.

The two incidents appear to be unrelated, Auburn Fire Chief Lee Lamar said.

“When (firefighters) arrived, they found two houses that had been under construction both fully involved …” he said. Firefighters had the fires under control within 25 minutes, but it took three more hours to fully extinguish them.

The fire division is investigating to determine where and how the fires started. The fires that leveled the two houses that sit on neighboring lots in The Cotswolds subdivision off Richland Road are being treated as suspicious fires, Lamar said. No natural gas or electricity had been installed, and no one was living in the houses, he said.

Lamar wouldn’t call it arson or speculate until the investigation was complete.

“Because there’s so little left of the structures, it’s going to be extremely difficult to prove anything,” Lamar said. “…The problem with fire is it eats all your evidence.”

While firefighters were battling those blazes, a call came in about a house fire on North College Street. That fire started in the kitchen, Lamar said, and firefighters were able to contain the blaze to that room and quickly put it out.

Lamar said it did not look like the two incidents were related.

Developer and builder Fred Peak has a different opinion.

“That was plain-out arson (Sunday) night,” said Peak, whose company was developing and building the houses.

Fred D. Peak and Associates, Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Thursday because of the pressures from banks and the recent housing market downturn, Peak said.

Peak also said he thought someone tried to set fire to his son’s house, which he said is next door to the North College Street house that caught fire.

“I feel that is not a coincidence,” Peak said. “…I think (someone) burned the wrong house by mistake. The fire marshal says it was a kitchen fire, but I don’t believe that.”