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Posted: 6:06 AM Nov 20, 2009
Officials calling overnight house fire in South Bend suspicious
South Bend, IN Arson may be to blame for an overnight house fire in South Bend.
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Arson may be to blame for an overnight house fire in South Bend. The blaze broke out around 11:30 Thursday night in the 1500 block of Lebanon Street near East Broadway.
No one was injured in the fire, but officials are calling it suspicious. "We had a probable vacant house that was unsecured, we arrived - heavy smoke in the whole neighborhood, heavy fire in the interior of the house. Investigators here doing an investigation, it looks pretty suspicious from what we're seeing now," says Battalion Chief David Maenhout of the South Bend Fire Department.
Fire investigators are searching for the cause, but many factors point to an intentional set.
"The fact that it looks to be vacant, or most of the furniture has been moved out and the house is totally secured and there's heavy fire in just one small area of the house that extended into the second floor."
Maenhout also says “it appears that there's probably an accelerant put down."
It will take a couple days to get lab results back to determine if an accelerant was in the house or not.
Witnesses also say they saw a car drive away from the home, just as it went up in flames.

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