Fire damages vacant Keene home; cause treated as suspicious

Oct. 26--A three-alarm fire consumed a vacant house in Keene Tuesday afternoon, doing heavy damage to the back half of the building before being extinguished by area fire departments.

The fire burned the back rooms of a house at 163 Pearl St., sending up plumes of smoke visible throughout the city. Members of the Keene Fire Department responded at 1:49 p.m., extinguishing the fire in an hour with help from other departments, Keene Fire Chief Mark Howard said.

No one was injured in the blaze; the house was unoccupied when firefighters arrived, according to Howard.

About 50 percent of the house was damaged in the fire, according to a Tuesday news release from the Keene Fire Department.

The cause of the fire was unknown Tuesday afternoon. Speaking on the scene shortly after 3 p.m., Howard said the fire was being treated as suspicious. The house has been vacant for months, according to neighbors.

In its news release the Keene Fire Department said that the fire remained under investigation, and that the Keene Police Department was assisting in following up.

The blaze took root in the back of the house, spreading to its middle and tearing a hole in the roof. Heavy clouds of smoke dominated the neighborhood Tuesday afternoon, as fire trucks and dozens of firefighters swarmed the scene.

Ladders and water hoses surrounded the house, manned by firefighters equipped with oxygen masks. Responders tackled the blaze from the interior and roof, working on three sides of the building to contain the flames.

Neighbors and passersby gathered on the sidewalks to watch, the street shut down to all traffic.

Jim Lucius, a Keene subcontractor, noticed signs of a fire while working on a sewage installation at a property next door. He called 911 at 1:47 p.m. after approaching the house and seeing smoke coming from the basement.

After the fire was upgraded to a third alarm at 2:02 p.m., departments from Jaffrey, Peterborough, Swanzey, Brattleboro and Walpole arrived to assist in the effort, according to the news release from the Keene Fire Department.

According to property records, the two-story house is owned by Summer Street Realty Trust, and trusted to Carmela Xarras.

Leo Xarras, son of Carmela and caretaker of the property, said he was unaware of the extent of property damage but that he had liability insurance that he thought would cover it.

Xarras, who lives in Boston, said that his family's limited liability company bought the property seven years ago. It was divided into two apartments and rented out to college students by Josh Greenwald of Greenwald Realty Associates, Xarras said.

It was last rented out eight or nine months ago and has been vacant since, Xarras said.

Greenwald did not responded to phone calls by the time The Sentinel went to press.

Departments from Chesterfield, Walpole and Spofford, and Westminster and Putney, Vt., covered the Keene station throughout the effort, the release said.

Ethan DeWitt can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1439, or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @EDeWittKS

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