Firebug To Blame For Prairie Street Fire?

DETROIT (WWJ) - The residents of one Detroit neighborhood fear they may have a firebug on the loose after another west side abandoned home goes up in flames Saturday morning.

It happened around 8 a.m. Saturday on Prairie Street near the Lodge at Lynwood.

WWJ's Kathryn Larson spoke with an eyewitness who says that the arsonist is setting the fires because he's angry with DTE for shutting his power off.

"I talked to the firebug personally - the firebug said that they are going to burn every house down because DTE turned their lights off. And they were moving at the time ... so he sets a bomb, he built a bomb," said the witness.

"He burns them down ... because he loves to see fire, you should have saw his eyes when the other house burned down - he just stood out here just excited and very happy," he added.

And the eyewitness says he has reported other fires his neighbor started two months ago.

Another neighbor, Jeremy Baker, woke to the sound of the burning house: "The number of fires that have happened here recently and I happen to live in a house that is four-foot from the abandoned house. So ... they've already set it on fire once - so I have definite reason to be worried."

The fire department worked for hours to contain the fire. No one was inside the home at the time of the blaze.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.