CAMBY — The Morgan County Sheriff’s Office, with assistance from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, is now leading an investigation into a fire that damaged or destroyed four homes in Camby early Sunday morning.
And according to MCSO Sheriff Rich Myers, the blaze was “an intentionally-set fire.”
“The investigation led them to that (conclusion),” Myers said Tuesday afternoon, adding that his investigators were in Indianapolis chasing a lead in the case that same day.
Multiple crews, including the Madison Township Fire Department, arrived on scene just after 4 a.m. Sunday to find a house ablaze, according to a news release from Madison Township Fire.
The fire ultimately spread to three other homes. The two homes closest to the fire’s origin sustained heavy damage, and two more faced moderate damage.
The blaze was declared under control by 4:50 a.m., 46 minutes after the first responders arrived on scene.
Footage obtained from a nearby home appears to show a person setting the fire who may have sustained serious burns themself from the ensuing explosion.
The house, now open to the sky with upstairs floors burned through, is in the Enclave section of Heartland Crossing in Madison Township near Morgan County’s northern border. The early morning blaze spread to three other closely spaced houses in the 13000 block of Cardonia Drive.
Occupants of the house where the fire started — Freddie and Lisa Harmon, along with their son BB — say they believe a person poured accelerants on BB’s $80,000 show car, a converted Dodge Hellcat that was in the driveway.
And they believe a neighbor’s video shows a figure jumping off the car and then desperately trying to extinguish flames on his or her body.
They have heard that a person suffering from burns was treated at a downtown Indianapolis hospital, the Harmons said on Monday, but that could not immediately be confirmed with authorities.
“This fire does appear to be suspicious in nature, but it does appear to be an isolated event,” according to a press release from Madison Township Fire Department. The fire was under control by 4:50 a.m., the department statement said.
The explosion was reportedly so strong it shook nearby houses, and the heat from the fire was so intense it kept people back 50 or more yards.
No one was injured in the fire — except perhaps the person who started it.
The Harmons were not home when the fire started; BB told The Correspondent he left the house at about 1 a.m. Sunday.
Residents escaped from a house directly north that was also destroyed. And a house directly to the south suffered heavy damage, but its occupants escaped soon after the blaze began. And the house apparently can be repaired.
The same can be said for a house north of the Harmons that appears to have absorbed only melted siding and to be the least damaged of the four houses.
A family is still living in that house, decorated with Halloween figures in the front yard. Homeowner Kristina Lynch told Fox 59 that nine people were in her house when she became aware of the fire; they were quickly evacuated, along with pets.
The Harmons believe the person in the video also threw a container — presumably carrying an accelerant, perhaps gasoline — against the neighbor’s house, spreading the fire. Fire also consumed a gas can sitting in front of the garage next to a lawn mower and caused a natural gas meter to explode, Freddie Harmon told The Correspondent.
A bright flash can be seen on videos that have been played on social media and on Indianapolis TV stations. Fire then engulfed the house the Harmons were renting, leaping skyward to create a blaze that responding firefighters could use to find the fire without benefit of a street address.
The Harmons credit Travis Edmondson, who lives a street over on Zenas Court, with throwing a charcoal grill into their back door to enter their burning house and checking all of the rooms to see no one was in the house. He then went door to door, rousing residents from their sleep.
His wife, Cynthia Wheeler, said Edmondson — who was at work when The Correspondent visited the fire scene Monday afternoon — heard the explosion, dressed and hurried the few yards to the fire.
“He saved all of these people’s lives,” Freddie Harmon said. “That’s a hero to me.”
A utility company cut off gas lines to the four houses, digging a trench after 4 a.m. to find all of the lines, he said.
The family did not have renters’ insurance, he said, and he fears valuable documents, savings bonds and family photos will be burned or water-logged. The structure was apparently insured by its owner, who also has been Harmon’s employer at AAR Aircraft Services near the Indianapolis Airport. Lisa Harmon works for the same company.
The Harmons moved to Indiana from Florida a dozen years ago and had lived in the house on Cardonia for more than a year.
“I don’t understand why anyone would do this to us,” Freddie Harmon said. “We go to work, we come home. We just have a handful of friends up here, no one really knows us.”
As of Monday afternoon, the family had not been allowed back into the house to assess damage.
A second Hell Cat, this one valued at $150,000, was inside the garage, and the Harmons hope it can be salvaged.
Freddie Harmon is concerned that a sports card collection featuring many rookie cards may be a casualty. He placed the value at $50,000, and had planned to sell them to help fund his retirement; he is 61.
He also had collectible guns in the house, and exploding ammunition kept firefighters away for several minutes, he said.
Kristen Ledac, whose house is next door to the south, was at the scene Monday afternoon.
“I’m just trying to get out what I can,” she said. “My house can be fixed.”
It has a collapsed ceiling, standing water, mold and other damages. Her daughter and boyfriend were in the house when the fire started, but she was not.
Crystal Johnson, a neighbor across the street from the fire scene, heard a boom and then saw flames. She called 911 and then called Lisa Harmon, who was camping with her husband at Raccoon Lake in Parke County.
Miss Kitty, the Harmons’ cat, was still missing as of Monday. They got her as a kitten. She is chipped if she is checked by a veterinarian
“We really didn’t want to come back today,” Freddie Harmon said Monday. “I was hoping we would wake up from a nightmare and that this didn’t really happen.
Jared Quigg and Stephen Crane contributed to this story.
