Arson may have been the cause of a fire that destroyed a vacant house in the Monarch Community Saturday night.

Firefighters called to the house in the 200 block of Boyd Street around 9 p.m. reported that it was already engulfed in flames. Monarch Fire Department called for assistance from Philippi, the City of Union and Southside fire departments.

Monarch Fire Chief Dr. John Flood said the Union County Sheriff’s Office was called in to assist in determining the cause of the fire because the house was not hooked up to electricity and no one was living in it. Flood said the fire appeared to have started in a front room.

Debbie Morris, an officer at the Union County Jail who lives across the street from the house, said it had been the home of her grandfather, Doug, who died in 1978. Another relative had lived in the large, white wood-frame house after Doug’s death but the house had been vacant for more than 25 years.

“It was boarded up to keep people from going in there and getting hurt,” she said.

Jones said the tornado was stronger in the T. Bishop/Proctor Road area because there it snapped hardwood trees.

Union County was fortunate the damage was not much worse, Jones said.

“Especially to have it actually hit mobile homes and nobody was injured,” he said. “Most everywhere it went, it went between people’s houses.”