PHOTO: Mount Airy fire officials are treating a Saturday fire that destroyed a home as “suspicious” in their investigation.
Chris Fallaw, fire marshal and assistant fire chief, said it was too early to say one way or the other, but the fire marshal’s office did call in the Mount Airy Police Department and the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation for assistance.
A passerby going to work early Saturday morning saw a fire on the front porch of a house at 359 W. Pine St., said Fallaw.
The Mount Airy Fire Department received the alert at 5:38 a.m. and had the first crew on the scene by 5:42 a.m.
The fire had advanced across the porch and into the front side of the home, the fire marshal stated. The firefighters began attacking the flames on the outside, but the fire had breached the indoors and took off.
The house itself was an older structure, then it was more vulnerable because the walls were opened up in places because of renovations and ventilation work, he said.