Just four days apart, two tremendous structure fires in Orem and Provo have left the community pointing fingers and scratching heads. With smoke and foul play in the air, both fires’ origins are being investigated by their respective cities.
On Feb. 4, around 8:00 p.m., an abandoned house ignited in South Orem, adjacent to 1600 South and 400 West. The house was set to be demolished the next day for a new development called Acadia Heights, but the flames got to it first. Orem officials have said, “the circumstances around the fire are too suspicious to ignore.” Online commentators have speculated that the developer had the most motive to burn down the house.
Linda, a South Orem resident of 20 years, expressed the sentiment she and others are feeling. “It’s 100% suspicious. It’s too convenient. You know, save that project developer a lot of money to demolish it…I mean, it really makes the most sense because he’s the one that has to pay to clean it up or clear it out, demolish it and it saved him a whole lot of money. There’s like a fourth of the work to do. I’m not saying it’s him, but it’s just weird. It’s so weird.”
Since being abandoned, the house has been a haven for outlaws. “We’ve had homeless people in it. We’ve had people doing drugs in it. We’ve had kids vandalizing it. It’s just been a mess.” Linda reflected.
Less than four full days later, in the early hours of Feb. 8, a construction site with four apartments was set ablaze at 3 a.m. Austin Svenson is a firefighter at Station 21, the second station to arrive on scene. “For me, for sure that was my biggest fire so far of my career. It was pretty gnarly,” Svenson said.
Upon Stations 21’s arrival, the second and third structures were already starting to catch. Svenson explained, “That’s the hard part, for a fire that big in a building that’s ready to burn, that’s all just dried wood just standing there, no protection. It’s super easy for it to light on fire from radiant heat. And that’s what happened. The two buildings on either side of the one in the middle, that started on fire, caught on fire like right as we got there.
“And so, it basically became let’s call these 3 buildings a loss, protect the last building and then the structures that are on the other side. Because we can at least control the fire from getting into other buildings, rather than trying to stop it in the buildings it was already in, because of how fast those fuels burn. Let’s pick two points to stop it, and not let it get past those two points.”
An official from the Provo fire department informed The Review that they are working with the Provo police department, Utah State Fire Marshal’s office, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tabacco, Firearms, and Explosives. “It will likely be a few weeks before anything is released.”
