By David DeKunder
Staff Writer

Authorities are investigating another suspicious fire in Marion, the city’s fourth since September.

The latest fire occurred Oct. 25, destroying the city’s old train depot located at the corner of East Krueger and North Barnett streets near the Marion Bowling Club. The fire was reported at around 5 a.m. early Saturday morning.

Marion Volunteer Fire Department Deputy Chief Joseph Rodriguez, one of the first firefighters on the scene, said firefighters did all they could to save the former train depot, which was being used for storage by a property owner.

“The fire was coming through the roof on the backside of the building,” Rodriguez said. “It was fully involved. We stopped it from going onto the front side.”

Despite saving some of the old building, Rodriguez said the former train depot more than likely will be demolished.

Rodriguez said fire officials and Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office criminal investigators are still determining whether arson may have been involved.

“We can’t confirm or deny that it was arson,” Rodriguez said. “It is being investigated as suspicious.”

The first suspicious fire in Marion was reported at 6 a.m. on Sept. 18, destroying the former Don’s Auto Repair building on Cunningham Street. The building, vacant for more than a year, had been a service station for several years and was a Ford dealership in the 1920s. It has since been demolished.

The next morning, Sept. 19, firefighters were called out at 2:24 a.m. in downtown Marion for a fire at one of the city’s landmarks, the historic Blue Moon Hall Antique Market. The fire, which fire officials said started at the back of the more than 120-year-old wooden building, spread quickly to the front of the structure and knocked a wooden wall that help spread the fire to the neighboring Penshorn’s Meat Market.

Firefighters from Marion and several area departments were able to stop the fire from destroying all of Penshorn’s, saving half of the meat market. Penshorn’s, while rebuilding, has since opened up for business.

After the second fire, authorities nabbed two 14-year-old male juvenile who allegedly setting fire to the former’s Don Auto Repair building but did not confess to the fire that destroyed all of Blue Moon and part of Penshorn’s. The juveniles were taken and detained at the Guadalupe County Juvenile Detention Center for 10 days.

One of the juveniles was released and placed under house arrest with his relatives in Bexar County in early October. The second juvenile is still being detained until Nov. 14 after Guadalupe County Court-at-Law Judge Linda Jones last Friday denied a request from the juvenile’s attorney that the boy be released.

After the juvenile boys were taken into custody, another fire started Oct. 10 destroyed an abandoned home on Wetz Road. While that fire is believed to be an accident, possibly electrical, investigators are still determining if it could have been caused by suspicious circumstances.

Since the fires in September, the city of Marion has hired a part-time officer, who was once a reserve, to provide protection during the late evening and early morning shift.

Marion Police Chief Reed Crane said he and other law enforcement officials are trying to determine who is responsible for at least two of the suspicious fires.

“We have got some leads we have been following,” Crane said.

Crane said residents can also make sure that their city is safe from a possible arsonist.

“Look out for suspicious vehicles and suspicious people in suspicious places,” he said.