Officials say overnight Beaver fire was arson (with video)

April 29--Several fires in Beaver, including one that brought eight departments racing to the scene early Friday morning, are believed to be arson and related, according to he Raleigh County Sheriff and the West Virginia State Fire Marshal's Office.

Police say they have suspects and hope to make arrests soon.

Shortly after midnight Friday, a warehouse for the Beaver Hardware store burned down along with a side building and a mobile home. The buildings are located on branches of 5th Street, 6th Street and Aberham Court. The mobile home was the only one of the buildings that was occupied.

The inferno that melted siding on nearby homes and cracked windows.

Fire officials say these fires are being investigated as arson, as are fires that destroyed three cars in the same neighborhood earlier this week.

Although the official cause of the fire has not been determined, people in the neighborhood said they have ideas as to who the culprit is.

"I can't say no names or anything or what's going to happen to them, but it's going to be handled," Edward McMurray said. "It has to be. When you practically burn out a family, that's not good."

McMurray said the neighborhood is pretty close and that's how they know they'll catch a suspected arsonist -- with the police's help.

"That man over across the street, Anthony, he adopts children and works his butt off every day," McMurray said. "Look at his house. It's been trashed."

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The house McMurray pointed out is livable, but it has been heavily-damaged in terms of appearance.

The siding is melted and the windows are cracked. As the family's 2-year-old knocked on the door, it sounded hollow, like an oil drum.

"The heat melted the inside of the front door," Anthony Kidd said. "I don't know what we're going to do. When the mines started to decline, I had to drop my homeowner's insurance so I'll be eating this out of pocket."

Another neighbor said she's already started packing her things.

"I'm going to load up everything other than a duffel bag full of clothes," Mary Myles said. "I'll lock it up somewhere so that, when this happens again, I won't have to lose everything and start over. I've started over too many times in my life. I'm too old to start over again."

No one was injured in the fire, but each of the neighbors said that they lost property in the blaze.

Suddenlink and APCO crews were working to restore power and phone services to the neighborhood Friday morning. There is no estimate as to when the power will be restored.

--Email: cneff@register-herald.com; Follow on Twitter @RHCodyNeff

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