Firefighters responded to a fire at 2:37 a.m. near Bristol Bay Court and Decatur Boulevard after receiving numerous 9-1-1 calls.
On arrival firefighters found heavy smoke coming out of a one-story house. The door was wide open with flames coming from the bedroom. Firefighters brought the fire under control in just a few minutes
Neighbors said that an elderly man lived in the house. But upon further investigation, the home was found vacant with no utilities and hardly any contents inside. A mattress was found in a rear bedroom that presumably fueled the fire.
It was later learned that the elderly man had not lived in the house for several months. Another neighbor told fire investigators that a squatter had taken up residence in the empty building. He said that activity in the house increased lately with people going in and out of the building.
