Slocumb Street fire deemed suspicious
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on May 16, 2017 9:57 AM
Firefighters responded to the second suspicious fire on Slocumb Street in less than a week Sunday night, according to a police report.
Firefighters responded to a structure fire call at 116 S. Slocumb St. Sunday at about 7:55 p.m., but discovered once they got on scene that the fire was in a pile of trash behind the house, according to a fire report.
The police and fire report both said the fire spread enough to cause minor damage to the vinyl siding of the house.
The person who reported the fire said he saw a black man with a backpack coming out from behind the house shortly after he saw smoke and called authorities to report the fire.
The police report said the black man carrying the backpack was also carrying a blanket and a plastic bag and fled the scene on foot heading west on Spruce Street.
The report described the man as being 6-foot-2-inches tall, 225 pounds with a medium-length afro.
According to the fire report, firefighters put out the fire with a small 2.5 gallon water can.
The other suspicious fire happened at 1804 S. Slocumb St. early Thursday morning when a blaze broke out in a garage attached to the home.
The family living in that house told authorities people they do not know are often in and out of the garage.
The investigation into that fire is ongoing.