SALEM, IL (KTVI) – More fires overnight in Salem, Illinois, where firefighters have been battling massive fires for the last two days. Investigators believe it’s possible someone could be setting these buildings on fire.
In recent days, a large fire destroyed the Old Brown Shoe factory and a nearby home. As of Friday, three more buildings are total losses.
Salem firefighters had been working around the clock for the second time in two days. Early Friday morning, flames poured out of a vacant building and then spread to a nearby vacant carwash. The blaze jumped once more, spreading to a pregnancy care building.
Friday’s scene is just down the street from the Old Brown Shoe Company warehouse. No one was injured in either fire.
While Salem officials have said it’s too soon to know the cause of the fires, or if they’re both linked, they do admit the fires are suspicious.
“We don’t know yet but we would speculate they are only because we don’t have this happen one after the other, so we are using the common sense approach that yes that’s a very good possibility,” said Salem Police Chief Sean Reynolds. “But we don’t have anything to link them just yet.”
Salem, Illinois is about 80 miles east of St. Louis, with a population around 9,000 residents.
