Parkersburg firefighters responded Saturday morning to a fire at this vacant building, formerly used as an AmeriGas office, at 519 Camden St. A vacant house on Lynn Street also burned that evening. (Photo Provided)

PARKERSBURG — Two more vacant Parkersburg buildings burned over the weekend, continuing a trend of structures with uninvited visitors catching fire in the city.

Firefighters responded Saturday morning to a reported fire at 519 Camden St., a former AmeriGas office that has been empty for about five years, Fire Chief Jason Matthews said.

It took about 10 minutes to extinguish the blaze, but firefighters remained on scene for a couple of hours to make sure everything was doused, he said. They returned later in the day after papers in a filing cabinet rekindled, the chief said.

While the office is not used, Matthews said AmeriGas has made efforts to keep doors and windows boarded up. The site is also used for propane storage, he said.

“They had issues with people breaking in and squatting in there,” Matthews said. “That’s just how brazen it is with some of these people.”

Man doors at the building were still boarded up, but a board over a window had been removed, he said.

The company is preparing to have the building torn down as a result of the fire, Matthews said.

Also on Saturday, around 7:20 p.m., a fire was reported in a vacant house at 928 Lynn St. Most of the fire was on the second floor, Matthews said.

The house has previously come to the attention of the city’s Building Enforcement Agency and been secured by the code department in the past, the chief said. Firefighters on Saturday saw evidence that multiple people had been staying there, he said.

City officials are in contact with the owner, who lives out of town, about taking action to address the property, Matthews said.

Both cases remain under investigation, with the Fire Department and Parkersburg Police detectives attempting to find out who was in the structures before they caught fire.

Matthews said such fires may not have been set with the intention of damaging the buildings, but they likely would not have happened if people had not been in the structures.

In many cases, “you’ll see remnants of fire just for warmth or for cooking,” he said.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.