STEVENS TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Last Monday night in Stevens Township, Bradford County, two vacant homes on the same street caught fire and investigators believe an arsonist is on the loose.
This has neighbors and business owners in the area on edge.
Smoke still emanates from the two burned-down houses. They are about a mile apart on Route 706 near the Bradford/Susquehanna County line.
Fire officials believe both of the vacant homes may have been intentionally ignited last Monday night.
"Everybody was really questioning what's going on. Both places were vacant with nobody around. We haven't had anything like this before. It kind of makes everybody think," Pete Hicks said.
Hicks lives next door to one of the now-charred homes. He says the damage wasn't this bad, but someone came back on Tuesday night and set the place on fire again. His neighbors would use the house only occasionally.
"They were not very neighborly. They kind of just kept to themselves all the while. They would come back maybe for four or five days in December, three days in May, and that's the only time we'd ever see them."
At Dotti Lou Meats, down the road from both fires, the owner tells Newswatch 16 she's nervous about the most recent blazes. She lost her home and business to fires within the last several years.
"It's scary. We lost our business. It was to an electrical fire, but still, it's sad. It's devastating," said Jerilynn Scavazzo. "Everybody is really scared. They don't know if it's going to be a vacant house? Is it going to be a house that somebody lives in?"
If you have any information, contact state police in Wyoming.