White Hall Fire officials are saying arson was the cause of a vacant house fire yesterday.
The Journal Courier reports that the White Hall Fire Department was called out for a structure fire at 5AM yesterday to a two-story structure fire in the 200 block of Worcester Street near Raines Street.
White Hall Fire Chief Cale Hoesman told the Journal Courier that the home was fully engulfed once fire crews arrived and that the second story of the home had already collapsed.
Firefighters were said to have been on scene for several hours and had to return to the location later in the day after remnants of the building rekindled. The home has been deemed a total loss.
Hoesman said that Ameren-Illinois officials told the fire department that there was still electricity service hooked up to the house, but power was essentially stopped at the home’s electric meter.
Hoesman told the paper that the cause of the fire currently stands as undetermined but does appear to have been set deliberately.
The fire is two blocks west of where another unoccupied home burned on South Grant Street in mid-June and six blocks south of where a garage burned in the 300 block of Higbee Street in late June.
If you have any information about any of these fires, contact the White Hall Police Department at 217-374-2135 or the Greene County Sheriff’s Office at 217-942-6901. Anonymous tips can also be left with the Two Rivers Crime Stoppers at 1-800-300-2590.