State, County and Local Fire Officials Investigate 3 Possible Arsons

Three suspicious fires in unincorporated Will County in less than a week have the State Fire Marshal's Office working with the and Will County Sheriff's Office to determine if an arsonist is to blame.

The three fires all involved abandoned structures and ignited—late at night—within miles of one another:

• April 4: A vacant pole barn adjacent to a silo in the 7500 block of West 191 Street was destroyed at about midnight.

• April 4: An unoccupied house in the 21000 block of South 84th Avenue was destroyed around 2 a.m. There were large piles of debris on the site, and it looked like a construction dumping ground, according to a Will County Sheriff's Office report.

• April 9:

"Well, it's definitely suspicious because there were no utilities hooked up," said Frankfort Asst. Fire Chief Larry Rauch.

Milly Santiago, spokeswoman for the State Fire Marshal's Office, said it's too early know how the fires were caused and didn't want to jeopardize any leads by commenting about the investigation.

Though have responded to assist with squelching the flames, the department isn't part of the investigation because the blazes were all on unincorporated land.

"We don't know what caused (the 191st Street) fire," Fire Chief Ken Dunn said. "There was no lightning, it was late at night and there was no one around. We can make some assumptions as to how the fire started. But that's why we rely on the investigation."

In investigations like this one, the three agencies share information with each other and focus on their areas of expertise, Rauch said.

Ultimately, the sheriff's office has arresting powers if investigators determine it's arson, he said, adding that he didn't know if any suspects had yet been identified.