Solomon fire intentionally set
<span>A house fire at 507 Solomon St. in the first minutes of Thursday has been ruled as arson, according to Chester Fire Chief Marty Bert.</span>
<span>Bert, after conferring with an investigator from the State Fire Marshal's office, confirmed the decision to the Herald Tribune.</span>
<span>"We will turn it over to the (Chester) police department and let them do their investigation," Bert told the Herald Tribune. "That's what we thought last night, but wanted to confirm."</span>
<span>"The officers I have assigned to investigate the case now have the preliminary information they need from the arson investigator to move forward," said Chester Police Chief Ryan Coffey. "We will be looking into a few leads right away and see where that takes us."</span>
<span>The fire was reported by a neighbor at 12:06 a.m. Firefighters arrived to find the rear of the house in flames.</span>
<span>"We know it started on the outside of the house, we don't know why," Bert said earlier Thursday. "We called Ameren in to kill the power, which we do for all structure fires. If they can't get here right away, we will pull the meter."</span>
<span>Bert said two occupants of the home, Courtney Carter and his mother, made it out safely.</span>
<span>Carter was involved in a one-vehicle accident on Jan. 30 on Route 150 at Shawneetown Trail that seriously injured 25-year-old Amanda J. Reeves.</span>
<span>Carter, who was uninjured in the accident, was cited by the Illinois State Police for disregarding a stop sign.</span>
<span>The Ellis Grove Volunteer Fire Department was requested for mutual aid, while the Evansville Fire Department provided station coverage for Ellis Grove. Firefighters cleared the scene around 4:30 a.m.</span>
<span>The CFD's normal fire investigator, Bruce Dahlem, retired last year. Dahlem lives in Sparta and the relative proximity was a benefit for Randolph County fire departments.</span>
<span>"The fire marshal was working a fatal fire in East St. Louis and said they would be here in the morning," Bert said. "We used to get Bruce all the time because he was in Sparta."</span>
<span>The Solomon Street fire is three-tenths of a mile south of the Jan. 25 fire at 621 Van Zant St. Bert said that an electrical cord on a space heater has been officially ruled as the cause for that incident.</span>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-28534403-adfc-50ce-dbce-606916eac442"><span>The Herald Tribune will have further updates as they become available.</span></span>