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Officials investigating ‘suspicious’ fire

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XENIA — Xenia fire officials are investigating what they call a “suspicious” fire that occurred early Thursday morning.

According to Chief Ken Riggsby, crews were called to a house on Commonwealth Drive around 12:30 a.m. and arrived to an active fire through the garage area and center section of the building. Riggsby said in talking to a neighbor, he found out the fire went up “fairly rapidly” and because there were no utilities (gas, fire, water) active in the home, the fire is suspicious.

There was evidence people were still living there, however nobody was home at the time, Riggsby said, adding that a dog did die as a result of the fire.

It took crews more than an hour to get the fire under control, and fire officials were at the scene until 4:30 a.m., which is not normal, according to Riggsby.

“It was a pretty heavy fire,” he said. “It took time with our investigation and the hot spots to get everything cleaned up.”

An official damage estimate was not available Thursday, but Riggsby said the roof is burnt off the garage section and there is damage throughout the entire house. A neighbor’s home also sustained siding damage.

Riggsby said the investigation is ongoing.

“We’ve still got a lot of research to do on it,” he said

Mutual aid was provided by Xenia, Cedarville, and Spring Valley townships, and the City of Beavercreek.

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By Scott Halasz

[email protected]

Contact Scott Halasz at 937-502-4507.