FIRE DESTROYS VACANT HOME ON NORTH MAIN

Fire Thursday claimed a house on Cape Girardeau's northeast side, making it the fifth in the neighborhood to burn during the last year.

The house at 709 N. Main was vacant. It sits next to the River's Edge, a nightclub. When participants in a River's Edge pool tournament looked out the back door about 7:45 p.m., they saw the home in flames. About 30 people evacuated the nightclub.

Debbie Pobst, the nightclub owner, called the fire department. She said she tried to buy the derelict home two years ago, planning to tear it down and turn it into a parking lot.

The homeowners live in California, Pobst said, and refused to sell.

"They found out that the gambling boat was coming and didn't want to sell the lot," she said. "We couldn't pay what they were asking."

The house is near the spot that Boyd Gaming Corp. has said it plans to put a floating casino on the Mississippi River.

The fire damaged River's Edge's beer garden and a privacy fence. An empty house on the other side of 709 N. Main wasn't damaged by fire, but firefighters used a "battering ram" to knock down the door and look for occupants.

Another neighbor, Bud Joyce of 631 N. Main, said the burned home last belonged to a family named Steinhoff. City officials weren't able to confirm Thursday who owned the property.

Joyce has lived in the neighborhood for 25 years and said recent events have him concerned.

"There is something going on around here," he said. "There are just too many fires."

In November 1995, a house burned down at 825 N. Main. Another followed in February a few blocks over at 625 N. Spanish. A third burned in March at 714 N. Spanish.

The most recent was an abandoned home in the 1300 block of North Water, which had been destroyed by Mississippi River flooding before burning to the ground.

Tom Hinkebein, battalion chief and fire marshal for the Cape Girardeau Fire Department, said the cause of Thursday's blaze couldn't be determined. He planned to search the ruins today.

The fire started in the living room on the first floor and the front bedroom on the second floor.

As for the string of fires in the area, Hinkebein would attribute them only to the age of the homes.