Chase Shustack

Green was ordinarily a jovial, if not overtly conservative man of 56 and, as expected of a man in his position, was not known to let trivial things affect him emotionally.

But as he was cleaning the cab of his ladder truck, a strong, uncomfortable sensation struck him.

And while it lacked any explanation, the intense feeling drove Green into dropping his rag and stepping away from the truck.

"'Too much working in the heat,' offered one of his men as they watched him limp away, dazed into the building.

The sudden morose that overtook Fire Chief Green remained an issue for the boys of the Siskin department, with concern over the boss's unusual isolation, rather than joining them for Friday Chili as he normally did.

But those concerns took a back seat when, at around 11.30 that night, the call came in.

It was the old house at 13 White Street.

It had stood abandoned for over 10 years now, nearly impossible to sell off.

Its rotting wooden porch and moth-hived infested windows made for a hideous eyesore on a relatively empty street of overgrown lots and that awful spring storm the year before had blown off most of the roof.

No gas lines or electricity were connected to the structure for an entire decade, so it came as a surprise when the crumbling residential home suddenly exploded into a fireball just after 11.

If the neighbors hadn't reported seeing an enormous fireball light up their block, the intense heat and the flaming roar would have been a clear enough sign.

In the span of no less than a minute, the entire home had disappeared from the face of the earth, consumed in a single deafening blast of rolling fire.

The resulting inferno was so severe that the arriving firemen decided to save resources and prevent the spread, rather than save the house.

A pointless venture, remembered a few at the scene.

The Siskin Fire Department fought the blaze for an impressive two hours before, at last, the conflagration died down to a few pathetic embers.

In the immediate aftermath, questions sprang up.

How could a house that had sat untouched for a decade suddenly go up in flames?

Even the lead investigator, who spent several hours sifting through the blackened rubble, found nothing.

Not even a telltale sign of arson.

It was as if, he explained, the house had spontaneously combusted through an act of God.