Fire marshal can't rule out arson in blaze that destroyed Freeport home

A state police fire marshal said he can’t rule out arson as the cause for a fire that destroyed a Freeport home last weekend.

The single-story, ranch-style house at 165 Washington St. was being renovated after it was damaged in another fire four months ago.

The home caught fire again early Sunday.

“At this point in time, I’m going to say that it’s suspicious, but the exact cause is unknown,” Trooper Duwayne Baird said Wednesday. “At this point, I just don’t know. It’s still under investigation.”

Baird said it’s difficult to pinpoint where the fire started because of the heavy damage, but it likely began on the first floor. He said there was no damage to the basement.

The fire burned through the roof and first floor and blew out the windows.

Baird said it’s also hard to tell whether anyone may have broken into the house.

“It appears that all the doors were secured when the fire department rolled up. It doesn’t mean someone didn’t break a window and go in,” he said.

The house didn’t have any contents inside, Baird said. It had been unoccupied since the previous fire, which happened Sept. 9, a neighbor previously told the Tribune-Review.

There was no electricity to the house aside from a temporary set-up contractors were using, Baird said.

“They put a new service drop in, fed it into a new panel and energized two outlets,” he said.

Baird said he was told the workers turned off the breaker to the outlets they were using before they left Jan. 15, four days before the fire. That was the last time the workers had been at the house.

The only thing that would have been receiving electricity was the panel, which did have thermal damage, Baird said.

“It’s just awfully odd to me that a house with no energized structural wiring and it’s void of contents just completely ignites,” he said. “I think it’s hard for that to happen unless there’s some type (of) human involvement.”

Anyone with information is asked to call the state police fire marshal unit at the Butler police station at 724-284-8100 or Freeport police at 724-295-4897. A phone message left with Freeport police wasn’t returned Wednesday.