A Saturday fire that destroyed a vacant house trailer on Water Tower Street in Bakersfield is now under investigation for suspected arson. The Ozark County Times reports the trailer stood roughly 100 yards from a vacant house which burned about a year ago under similarly suspicious circumstances.
According to a report from the Ozark County Sheriff’s Office, a call came in Saturday morning at 8:42 from a woman who said a trailer on her property burned to the ground the previous evening. The report says the caller didn’t want an investigation, only to report and record the incident.
The report also says the Bakersfield Volunteer Fire Department contacted the state fire marshal about the fire, which had caused damage to telephone lines and an electric cooperative transformer.
Bakersfield VFD Assistance Chief Lloyd Stone says after talking to BVFD Chief Greg Watts about the fire, the marshal declined to come to the scene, believing the structure was most likely too far gone to determine the cause.
However, an Ozark County Sheriffs deputy photographed the site and his accompanying report will be turned over to the chief deputy to determine whether the department should continue to investigate.
Stone says he thinks the trailer house was abandoned five or six years ago. The nearby home on Water Tower Drive, which burned a year ago, was in the same shape before it burned. Both houses were unoccupied, and neither house had electricity.
The latest fire was about a quarter mile from the BVFD firehouse.
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