Deceased man's Washington home turned into 'drug house' by squatters catches fire after eviction

Wenatchee Police Department says the case is being investigated as an arson

Authorities in Washington state say that a house occupied by squatters caught fire earlier this week shortly after the building was condemned in an incident that is being investigated as arson.

Fire crews responded to a fire at an abandoned building located in the 400 block of Walker Ave. in South Wenatchee, Washington, Thursday morning. The building, which had been taken over by squatters in the year since the previous owner died, had become a "known drug house" with "15-20 people in and out of it", according to a report from the Wenatchee Valley Fire Department obtained by Fox News Digital.

Authorities said the fire occurred shortly after the city’s code department posted a notice on the house that it was uninhabitable which the fire department report categorized as an "eviction."

Captain Edgar Reinfeld of the Wenatchee Police Department confirmed to Fox News Digital that the home, foreclosed on earlier this year and owned by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, had no water or power for "quite some time" and had been deemed "unsafe to occupy" by the city.

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The Wenatchee Valley Fire Department is investigating a fire at a house inhabited by squatters as an arson. (Wenatchee Valley Fire Department)

The squatters had also been emptying human waste into a nearby alley since the sewage and water systems were offline, NCW Life reported.

"Code enforcement went out there with one of our officers to post the property was unsafe to occupy and so it was posted unsafe to occupy and during that contact there was one person there they spoke to and they let him gather some stuff and then he left and then everybody was gone," Reinfeld said, explaining that the fire was started shortly after law enforcement left the scene.

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A fire was set outside a home in Washington where squatters had recently been told to leave. (Wenatchee Valley Fire Department)

The fire department report described the fire as a "garbage/rubbish pile fire" that started outside the residence but spread to the actual structure. 

Reinfeld told Fox News Digital that the police department has "developed potential suspects" in the incident and are "working it as an arson case."

Police say 15 to 20 squatters were in and out of the Washington home that had become a "drug house." (Wenatchee Valley Fire Department)

While Reinfeld said that squatting is not prevalent in the town of Wenatchee, squatting has been a growing problem in the western part of the state near Seattle and has continued to grow as a significant problem across the country, a real estate expert told Fox News Digital in March.