Morning fire ruled to be arson
<p>Rick Freier, the Spokane Valley Fire Department Assistant Fire Marshal, follows his dog Mako through samples collected from a fire scene being investigated as an arson Friday in Coeur d'Alene at the corner of Seventh Street and Elm Avenue. The Coeur d'Alene Fire Department responded to the vacated home at 4:26 a.m. where crews discovered the two-story residence with heavy fire showing from the main floor and extending to the second floor.</p>
<p>Ed McElfresh, with Northwest Boardups, walks through debris after hanging an arson reward sign on a home destroyed by a fire early Friday morning.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - Investigators said a fire that destroyed a Seventh Street Coeur d'Alene home early Friday morning was the result of arson.
The Idaho State Fire Marshall's office is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest for the suspect or suspects investigators believe set fire to the two-story home at 961 N. Seventh St. on the corner of Elm Avenue sometime before 4:30 a.m.
"We're confident it was not an accident," said Glenn Lauper, Coeur d'Alene deputy fire chief. "It was a design to do damage to the structure."
No one was injured in the blaze. The home was unoccupied when fire engines arrived around 4:30 in the morning to see "heavy fire" coming from the main and second floors, according to a press release from the fire department.
The main body of the fire was extinguished quickly, but crews remained on scene for a few hours putting out the deep-seated fire in the attic, the release states.
By late morning Friday, investigators - the IFMO, CFD and Coeur d'Alene Police Department, assisted by an accelerant-sniffing dog from Spokane - determined the blaze had been intentionally set.
"We're eliminating all accidental causes and finding evidence of multiple ignitions," Lauper said, declining to identify what type ignitions they were, pending the investigation. "It is arson."
Neighbors of the home as well as the property management company who rented it out described former tenants of the home as having created a "party house."
Its most recent tenants had been evicted earlier in the week for wrecking the home, according to Property Management Investment Group, the Post Falls rental company that had been renting the home for around three years.
"They were kind of party animals, up all night, playing their music loudly, squealing their tires," said Phil Provost, who lives across Elm Avenue from the property. "It was just a constant flow of people in and out of there all night."
Neither PMIG nor Lauper identified the former tenants, and Lauper would not say whether they were suspects or persons of interest in the investigation.
It was unclear how many people, described in their early 20s, were living in the home, but it was rented to a female, the rental company said.
"That was part of the eviction. It was supposed to be just her, but it was a whole lot of people living there," said Darlene, PMIG owner, who declined to give her last name. "I did give them an ultimatum, either get out, or we will take you to court to get you out."
The tenants had moved out by Thursday, neighbors said. The house was bare of furniture when it was apparently set on fire.
The home's listed owner in the Kootenai County Assessor's Office, Eugenio Bradbury, passed away recently, authorities said. The home had been willed to one of his family members. That family member did not live there but instead used the rental company to rent it out.
"I suppose it was a party house," said neighbor Logan Grimesey. "I never witnessed any fights but there were some yells."
Provost said he didn't know the neighbors by name, only one woman there as 'Callie.' He said she had been living there only a few months and that after she had kicked out two male roommates less than a month ago, the home was ransacked and police were called.
Provost said he talked to the female neighbor then and that she told him she suspected her former roommates committed the reported crime. A request for the police report wasn't returned by the police department Friday afternoon. Darlene said the rental company had a copy of the report that confirmed Provost's account but could not provide it Friday afternoon.
The rental company was waiting to speak to investigators, she said.
Anyone with information should call 1-877-75-ARSON.