INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) – Two Indianapolis house fires in one neighborhood are being called suspicious and possibly connected due to at least similar circumstances. The fires happened on Indy’s on north side early Christmas morning.
Eyewitness News talked to the family who was inside their house when it caught on fire. They lost all of their Christmas gifts. They hope whoever is responsible is caught and so are neighbors.
People living on the near north side of Indy drove by, walk by and even some jogged by just to see the extensive damage. Many of the homes in the area are single family dwellings that have been renovated to maintain the historic look.
William Salin said, “It's a pretty quiet community, nice community."
During their Christmas Day neighborhood walk, Salin and his family stopped to get a look at the house they heard someone purposely set on fire.
It all started around 3:30 a.m. Christmas when the family woke up to a noise and found the front porch and living room full of flames.
The mother went to the staircase to investigate the noise and immediately noticed the bright light from the flames on the front porch. By the time she, her husband and two children got outside the flames had grown even more.
They shared with Eyewitness News that they escaped a couple of minutes before their working smoke detectors started going off from the smoke.
The husband, wife and two children got out unharmed.
Now they can only hope arson investigators find out who started the fire. Their neighbor William does too. Especially since they first thought the fire was an accident of some kind.
“My wife and I thought that it could have been accidental. We speculated that it could have been an oven or something of that nature. It's disheartening to hear that it could be related to a malicious act," said Salin.
He calls it a malicious act because whatever the suspects used lead to flames so intense it blew out one of the windows. The flames from the porch moved quickly inside the house and destroyed the family Christmas Tree and all the gifts under the tree for their young son and daughter.
The flames got so big the fire left the house next door charred too. The neighbors north side windows are boarded up and the siding is melted and burned as well.
In some of the social media photos posted by the fire department, you see them battling heavy smoke and the intense flames. To make things worse, arson investigators suspect the same person set fire to this house near 16th on North New Jersey Street.
Most of the damage on North New Jersey is also on the front of the house. Although the family in this case also escaped injury, they never expected anyone to target their homes during holiday.
“Hate to see terrible things especially on Christmas Day and to be related would be a tragedy. Hopefully the investigators can figure it out and catch the perpetrators who did it,” said Salin, “Disappointed on Christmas I guess, not in the spirit of Christmas or not what Christ would want from us and really just disappointed I guess."
If you have any information about a suspect you can call Crime Stoppers at 317-262-TIPS.
All calls to the tip line are 100 percent confidential. If your anonymous tip leads to an arrest, you will receive a reward of up to $1,000 in cash.