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Man questioned after vacant city house catches fire

WARREN — A man was questioned by arson investigators Friday evening after a witness saw a man walk out of a vacant house moments before flames began leaping from its attic.

Sage M. Veney, 26, was arrested on a domestic violence warrant by Warren police about an hour after the fire was reported at 7 p.m. Police found the man in an apartment at 1456 W. Market St., a two-minute walk from 168 Ohio Ave. NW, the vacant house that caught fire.

Flames were coming out of the attic window, said Joe McIe, who lives next door to the house he said has been vacant for years. McIe said he was getting ready to go shopping when he saw a man with a limp walking out. Moments later, McIe said he and others could smell smoke and then noticed the flames coming from the top floor.

Warren assistant fire Chief Bill Monrean said the fire department is no stranger to Ohio Avenue NW.

Three people died where a house once stood in what is now a vacant lot next to 168 Ohio Ave., Monrean said. And the vacant lot across the street from the house is where a woman died in a house fire, Monrean said.

Monrean said sometimes homeless people stay in vacant homes and accidentally start fires, find they can’t control them and flee.

The department’s fire investigators on Friday night were interviewing the man police arrested, said Warren police Lt. Martin Gargas. Gargas said the man would be held in the Trumbull County Jail on outstanding warrants.

The department quickly extinguished the fire, using 2,000 gallons of water, and is investigating the cause, Monrean said.

McIe said he thinks the vacant house should have been torn down some time ago.

“It gives drug dealers and users a place to go. These vacant houses need to go, or be worked on and given to the homeless or veterans to live in,” said McIe as he watched the firefighters put out the flames next to his house.

rfox@tribtoday.com

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