Oct 29, 2017 2 min read

A vacant house that has been on the city’s list for demolition “for several years” burned down Saturday night – almost taking a neighboring house on Ridge Avenue with it – in what the Washington fire chief called arson.

Firefighters from Washington and other local departments responded to the 7:45 p.m. call for a residential structure fire at 217 Oak St. with possible entrapment of a resident, according to Washington fire Chief Linn Brookman.

The man suspected of being entrapped was Ed Tarte, who was not in the structure at the time.

“I was walking home from work,” Tarte said at the scene. “I was walking up the street and saw the fire trucks. Someone had called me and said, ‘Hey, your house is on fire.'”

Tarte’s residence at 222 ½ Ridge Ave. caught fire briefly as the fire spread from the vacant house next door.

Tarte, who’s lived at the Ridge residence for two years, said he’s never seen anyone come or go from the house next door, which he said has been vacant for 17 years.

Oak Street is an alley behind Ridge Avenue.

Brookman said at the scene there were “no injuries yet.”

He said the house where the blaze started has been vacant and on the city’s demolition list for “several years.”

“This was definitely an arson,” Brookman said.

Brookman said he would contact a state police fire marshal Sunday to have the source of the fire investigated.