Cape fire burns two homes

A raging fire destroyed a home on South Spanish Street Tuesday afternoon. It also ignited a nearby house, causing severe damage.

Fire inspectors hadn't determined the cause of the blaze as darkness fell. They plan to continue their investigation today, Cape Girardeau fire Capt. Rick Crites said as the final firetrucks left for their stations.

The fire was well advanced when firefighters arrived, with flames pouring out of the back apartment at 221 S. Spanish St. Witnesses reported seeing activity in front of the house just minutes before smoke and fire burst from the building. And the tenant of the building said there were squatters living in one apartment that her landlord had failed to dislodge.

Cheryl Thomas wept as her home burned Tuesday. The house at 221 S. Spanish St. in Cape Girardeau was a total loss. The house at 217 S. Spanish St. also was extensively damaged.

The home was vacant when the fire began. Tenant Cheryl Thomas arrived shortly after firefighters and screamed in anguish when she saw her home engulfed in flames.

"Somebody set my house on fire," Thomas sobbed as she watched firefighters attack the blaze. "I don't have nothing."

Witnesses at the scene reported seeing two vehicles leave from in front of the house just before the fire became visible.

Dennis Pengelley of 217 S. Spanish St. tended to his minor injury after escaping the smoke and flames in his home.

Don Rice, owner of Flori Heating and Cooling, was returning to his office in the neighborhood as the fire was starting. "There was a van in front of the house," Rice said. "It was just an old yellow and white van, parked right in front of the house."

As the van pulled away, Rice said, he saw smoke and called 911. Then he went to the house to check for inhabitants, saving a small dog in the front room.

When he went in, Rice said, the back half of the house was ablaze, and fire was coming through the ceiling.

Another witness saw a second car, occupied by four people, sitting in front of the vacant lot adjacent to the home where the fire began. The witness, who asked for anonymity, said three or four men and a heavyset woman got out of the white automobile. "They walked toward the empty lot, and they were all over the lot," the witness said.

The witness said she was momentarily distracted. When she looked again, she said, the car was gone, and the house was smoking.

After Thomas had calmed down, she said she had not been home all day. When the fire broke out, she said she was at a friend's home nearby on the front porch.

The rush of emergency vehicles caught her attention, she said, and that is when she discovered her home was on fire. Even before the fire and police vehicles began arriving, she said she had a feeling she needed to return.

"Something kept telling me to go home," Thomas said.

Police questioned Thomas about the reports of vehicles near her home even as firefighters sought to extin