FIREFIGHTERS BATTLE 3 BLAZES

Cape Girardeau firefighters responded to three fires Sunday morning, one of which might have been started by "vagrants" trying to keep warm in an abandoned building.

No injuries were reported.

A small brick building at 605 Good Hope that city fire and police officials say was a frequent overnight shelter for drifters was destroyed by fire at about 1 a.m. Sunday.

The building was owned by VIP Industries and was used primarily for storage, said Assistant Fire Chief Max Jauch. It is located behind what formerly was VIP's recycling center.

Jauch said his department isn't sure of what exactly caused the fire, but he added that it might have been started accidentally by drifters who frequently spend the night in the unsecured building.

"Some vagrants had been sleeping in there. That's how it was probably started," Jauch said.

The assistant fire chief said he wasn't sure who reported the blaze. The building was completely destroyed, and there also was minimal damage to the adjacent building, he said.

A fire also was reported shortly after midnight Sunday at a home at 415 Chesley Drive.

Jauch said smoke detectors apparently woke the family of Harold Bollinger after a dryer overheated and ignited some nearby paneling.

The blaze began in the basement of the one-story home, which was heavily damaged by flames and smoke. Other areas of the home were damaged by heat and smoke, Jauch said.

"They (The Bollingers) told us it was the smoke detectors that woke them up," he said.

A third fire was reported at 6:20 a.m. in a two-story apartment building at 608 Belleview. Tenants of a basement apartment apparently been were using hot plates with two burners to heat the apartment, Jauch said.

"The hot plate ignited a wooden table and a bed," he said.

Firefighters were at the apartment for less than an hour. Damage was minimal and confined to the basement apartment, he said. There were three or four people in the apartment at the time of the blaze; none were injured.

Jauch said Sunday was an unusually busy morning for firefighters. "You usually don't get three fires right in a row very often," he said.