A fire heavily damaged an unoccupied home in the 600 block of Sherman Street in Akron on Tuesday morning, Oct. 27, and no one was injured, according to the Akron Fire Department as reported by the Akron Beacon Journal.
Crews arrived around 5 a.m. to find heavy smoke and fire coming from the top of the 1.5-story house, according to a fire department news release cited by the Akron Beacon Journal. The home was unoccupied when the fire happened, Tawanna Young, the fire department’s public information officer, told the Akron Beacon Journal.
The Beacon Journal reported that the home sustained extensive damage. Firefighters worked the scene Tuesday morning while the cause and origin of the fire remained under investigation, according to the department release cited by the Beacon Journal.
FirstEnergy, Dominion Energy and the city water department were notified to help control utilities at the scene, the release said, as reported by the Akron Beacon Journal. Securing gas, electric and water service is a standard step when a vacant house burns, so crews and investigators can work safely.
No injuries were reported by the fire department, according to the Beacon Journal’s account of Young’s statement. The Beacon Journal did not report any residents displaced, because the house was empty at the time of the fire.
Sherman Street sits in Akron’s south side neighborhoods, where vacant and unoccupied houses have long been a focus for fire prevention and code enforcement. The department has not said whether the fire is considered suspicious.
Anyone with information about the fire can contact the Akron Fire Department. The investigation into cause and origin is continuing, according to the department release reported by the Akron Beacon Journal.
Vacant-house fires are a recurring workload for Akron firefighters, and investigators typically examine utility status, entry points and any evidence of activity inside the structure when they work to determine a cause. The Beacon Journal reported no timeline for the Sherman Street investigation, and the fire department had not announced any arrests or charges in connection with the fire as of its Tuesday reporting.
Photo: Raymond Wambsgans, CC BY-SA