Fire marshall to investigate suspicious fires at apartment house.

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief. 

SCOTTVILLE — Scottville Fire Chief Dale Larr is calling two separate fires in the same apartment house suspicious after firefighters were called twice to Reinberg Ave. Apartments, 103 N. Reinberg Ave. late Thursday night and early Friday morning.

Initially, firefighters were called to a report of a fire in the hallway about 11 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21, 2016. That fire was apparently found by a resident of the home and quickly extinguished, who then called 911. Scottville Fire Department was on scene for about an hour for the initial fire.

Then, about 1:45 a.m. Friday, Jan. 22, 2016, the fire department was called back for another fire in the wall of the hallway. Chief Larr said he was suspicious was that neither fire seemed to be related. “It was just too far of a distance between the two sources for the fires to be related,” Larr said.

A Michigan State Police fire marshall has been called to investigate. Larr said he contacted the American Red Cross to assist with providing shelter for the apartment house’s 12 residents for the evening.  Though there wasn’t a lot of damage in the house, Larr said it was being treated as a crime scene.

Assisting Scottville Fire Department was Custer Fire Department, Scottville Police Department, Mason County Sheriff’s Office and Michigan State Police.

Firefighters were called to the apartment house on Jan. 3 for a fire that Larr described as electrical in original. That fire took place in an upstairs bathroom when the motor of a vent caught on fire. Little damage resulted from it. Earlier Thursday night, firefighters were called to another apartment house fire at 111 E. State St. The cause of that fire, Larr said, was an accidental grease fire on a stove. No one was injured at any of the fires. Crews cleared the scene at 3:30 a.m.