TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — Over the past few days, there have been two abandoned structure fires in Terre Haute, with one of them involving a fatality.
In light of this pattern of abandoned structure fires, Terre Haute Fire Chief Darrick Scott said that these structure fires could be started with criminal intent.
“Landowners that own the property don’t have the money to fix it, and they don’t have insurance on it, and they set the fire,” he said. “That is what our investigators are for. Every fire is investigated and with the help and cooperation from the Terre Haute Police Department, we actively look at these situations and try to find out the cause.”
Scott said he also has to take the ongoing homelessness problem Terre Haute is having into consideration when dealing with these types of incidents.
“We have a homeless situation in the city of Terre Haute,” Scott said. “Some of them have been homeless people going into these vacant structures to try and stay warm.”
However, Scott also said that he is hopeful that these issues are going to be resolved in the near future. Noting that Mayor Brandon Sakbun is seeking funds at the state and federal level to try and get these structures out of the picture.
“The mayor has actively been working on more grants and funding,” said Scott. “I think right now with our current budget that we are well below 50 a year that we can tear down, but I know the mayor and the city government are working strong with state and federal trying to get more grants to take care of the abandoned structure problem in Terre Haute.”
The cause of the fire on Tuesday was ruled accidental by the Terre Haute Fire Department.
