A fire that broke out early Sunday morning in the 500 block of East Chestnut Street was intentionally set inside an uninhabited home that was damaged in a deadly blaze late last year, city authorities said.
According to officials with the city’s police and fire departments, the blaze broke out in a vacant row home at around 4:50 a.m. Police said no one has lived in the residence since it was damaged during a fire last September that killed a mother and her young son two doors away.
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Police said a contractor was sleeping inside the home when Sunday morning’s fire started, but escaped the building unharmed.
Coatesville Fire Chief Jim Lentz said firefighters brought the flames under control within 30 minutes of their arrival. Most of the flames were contained to the single residence, though an adjacent row home did suffer some damage, Lentz said.
No injuries were reported.
Police officials said investigators determined the fire was arson, but withheld details on how the fire was set for investigative reasons. The Coatesville Police Department is leading the investigation with assistance from county and state police fire marshals.
On Sept. 18 of last year, 44-year-old Elizabeth Izquierdo and her 5-year-old son, Imanol, were killed when a fire broke out in their home and spread to several adjacent residences, one of which the home where Sunday morning’s fire was set. 32 other people were temporarily displaced by the 2012 fire, and eight were briefly trapped on a roof before they were rescued by firefighters.
Officials said that fire’s cause was determined not suspicious, but did say that the home in which Izquierdo and her son were killed did not have working smoke detectors.
