Three unoccupied residences, in two separate cases, caught fire in Columbia just a few days apart, and the incidents are being investigated by the State Fire Marshal.
The Columbia Fire Department was dispatched to 500 Wade St. for a large unoccupied house on fire March 18 at 5:20 p.m. The house, which is divided into three living units, only sustained fire damage to the back of the house. The CFD, along with the Tri-Community Volunteer Fire Department, cleared the scene at 6:53 p.m.
In the early morning hours of Sunday, CFD was dispatched to the corner of Dukes Avenue and West Avenue, just behind Jefferson Middle School, for two abandoned structures side by side fully involved. After arriving on scene at 1:39 a.m., the CFD and Tri-Community managed to extinguish the fires and keep them from spreading to other structures or the woods.
Columbia Fire Chief Lyle Berard said he is unaware what the state of the houses were prior to the fire.
Berard said Tuesday morning that he was meeting with the fire marshal later that day to try to figure out what could have started the blazes.
“We’ve had a bunch of unoccupied structures burning. That’s why they’re here,” he said.
