A fire on Barrows Street late Monday night was the latest in a dozen city fires this month - several of which have been suspicious in nature, Jamestown Fire Department Battalion Chief Don Woodfield said.
Jamestown Fire Department officers responded to the scene of a reported house fire at 225 Barrows St. at 11:36 p.m. Monday. Flames coming from the second-story and attic windows of the building were noticeable from some distance, Woodfield said.
Most of the openings of the unoccupied building were boarded up, Woodfield said.
With high winds blowing through the area as well, firefighters needed nearly an hour to beat back the flames before they could enter the building. After entering, Woodfield said, another hour was needed to extinguish the blaze.
While the cause of the blaze remains under investigation, the fire is just the most recent of several in the same area - including a Christmas morning fire at 440 Allen St. just down the hill from the Barrows Street house, and another in the 500-block of Allen Street a week before.
''Some of these fires are definitely arson,'' Woodfield said. ''They were intentionally set.''
This is the not the first time the area has seen an outburst of suspicious fires. A house at 216 Barrows St. was burned on Christmas Day 2008 in what was later ruled an arson, and a second vacant house was set ablaze intentionally at the corner of Barrows and King streets five days later.
A fire that took place on Prendergast Avenue on Sunday night is also currently being investigated, Woodfield said. Interviews with witnesses and neighbors are being done in conjunction with the investigation.
The number of arsons in the city has increased substantially over the past three years.
In a past interview with The Post-Journal, Lt. Brian Boehm of the Jamestown Fire Department said that a third of the fires in the city in 2007 were intentionally set; while half of 2008's fires were considered arson. Investigation continues in the two recent fires, but multiple blazes earlier this year - including one at another abandoned house on Crescent Street in July - have been ruled arsons.
Woodfield said that as fires continue to spark up around the city, residents in neighborhoods that have been hit need to be aware of what is happening around them and be on the lookout for suspicious activity.
''Keep your eyes open,'' Woodfield said. ''Watch your area, watch your neighborhoods.''
