The Tempe Fire Department responded to a fire on a vacant residential property on the 900 block of South Ash Avenue Wednesday afternoon.
Tempe Fire Department spokesman Phil Rohe reported no injuries in the fire that started in a two-story building behind the house, which included a small garage on the first floor.
Tempe resident Michael Mueller said he was driving northbound along Ash Avenue around 2:30 p.m. when he noticed smoke billowing from the house.
“I thought at first it might be someone burning leaves, but I thought, ‘That’s a lot of smoke for burning leaves,’ ” Mueller said.
Mueller said he pulled into a parking lot across the street and immediately called 911. Afterward, he and another man at the scene began trying to alert people inside the house, but they stopped when it became apparent the house was empty.
Minutes later, the fire department was at the scene.
Rohe said the fire, which took about ten minutes to put out, was likely started by transients in the house.
“We had a report of transients here, and there’s no power to the building,” Rohe said. “It had to be caused by a person.”
Rohe said he had no idea why the transients started the fire.
“That’s a question you’d have to ask them,” he said.
The property, just west of downtown Tempe, is managed by realtor Doug Royse of Keller Williams Realty Company.
Royse said the building that caught fire was a favorite spot for vagrants, who usually slept in the sleeping porch behind the house.
He said Tempe police need to crack down on the homeless population, which seems to be concentrated in and around downtown Tempe.
“The police should do a better job of checking vacant houses,” Royse said. “They break in from the alley, and it’s hard to tell they’re in there.”
Reach the reporter at dquizon@asu.edu.
