Fire damages Cairo home

CAIRO, Ill. -- Another fire broke out in Cairo late Sunday.

The fire happened at 408 Martin Luther King Ave., the third fire to fall under investigation by Illinois State Fire Marshal Charles Caldwell in nine days.

The Cairo Fire Department was called out to the residence around 10 p.m. John Meyer, the department's chief, said upon arrival there was heavy smoke coming from the basement windows.

A couch could be seen from the home's entrance and pairs of tennis shoes laid on the front porch of the home Monday, giving the impression the residence had been occupied.

"There was a guy who lived here, but there was no one home," Meyer said.

No one was injured in the fire, but a dog was found dead on the back porch, while a brown pit bull, said to have escaped the fire, wandered the yard next to the home.

Caldwell has finished investigating a fire that hit two homes Thursday on 21st Street and an Oct. 24 fire that destroyed Hong Kong, the city's only Chinese restaurant, but because paperwork is still being processed couldn't release a cause.

The Oct. 24 fire in the 2000 block of Washington Avenue also destroyed living quarters above the Chinese restaurant, a closed antique shop and an old lounge, called the Speakeasy.

Meyer said the department called the fire suspicious at first, but then located utilities that were still functional in the buildings.

The cause of the residential fires remain undetermined, Meyer said, and the investigation will continue.

Look for more on the recent rash of fires in Cairo Tuesday on semissourian.com and in the Southeast Missourian.

ehevern@semissourian.com

388-3635

Pertinent address:

408 Martin Luther King Ave., Cairo, IL

2000 Washington Ave., Cairo, IL

21st Street, Cairo, IL