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Steubenville fire being investigated

STEUBENVILLE — Firefighters are still trying to figure out the cause of an early morning fire Sunday on Arlington Avenue and what role, if any, a neighborhood dispute might have played in it.

Fire Chief Carlo Capaldi said the house at 1306 Arlington Ave. was fully engulfed when crews arrived on scene around 4 a.m. Sunday.

He said the residence was believed to be occupied, but no one was home at the time.

“Fire was coming out the windows,” he said. “We tried to contain it to the building of origin because of two exposures — one to the east, the other to the north. The one to the east had siding melted on the back, but we kept it out of that house. The other side, I think a window or two was broken by the heat. The house where it started was pretty much a total loss.”

He said fires called in at that time of day aren’t noticed as quickly, so they tend to be fully engulfed by the time crews arrive.

Given all that, “the guys did a good job keeping it off those others structures, making sure everything was out.”

City Police said they’d been called to the 1300 block at least three times Saturday to referee disputes involving broken car windows and mirrors involving the occupant of the house.

Around 6 p.m., the man who’d been living at the residence said he was being threatened by a neighbor demanding he pay for a window that had been broken in the other man’s vehicle.

Less than three hours later the same man called police again, telling them he thought the other man had thrown a brick at his vehicle, breaking his driver side mirror. The other man, backed by two neighbors, denied being near him or throwing anything, and said the complainant had moved off the street but continues to come back to “run his mouth” at those still living in the neighborhood. The two witnesses said the complainant drove into the alley and started a verbal confrontation with people living there, and had threatened to bring people back with him “to take care of business.”

Around 11:30 p.m., the same man accused the other man of again approaching him, this time with his hands behind his back to conceal a brick he claims the man threw through the rear windshield.

Officers spotted the man walking north on the overpass just before the fire was reported, and since he’d lived at the residence, circled back to talk with him. The man who’d lived in the burning structure said he’d moved out because of all the tension and insisted the other man had threatened to burn the house he’d been living in down, but several neighbors claimed they’d heard him say if nothing was done about the damage to his vehicle he was going to set the house on fire himself, police said.

Capaldi said investigators are following up.

“The fire is under investigation,” Capaldi said. “We have numerous things to track down, the inspectors are following up on it. Everyone and their mother up there has an opinion on who started it (so) the cause is under investigation, we’re tracking down leads and interviewing witnesses in the neighborhood.”

He said at this point, he can’t even say where the blaze started, “it burned that bad.”

He said Wintersville firefighters assisted at the scene, and a crew from Weirton covered the rest of the city.

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