By Kevin Lavery, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – The first fire broke out around 4:30 a.m. at a townhouse construction site on Vail Street.
Within minutes, another fire began about two blocks south at a second project site at Mississippi and Lafayette.
Two buildings were completely destroyed and several others damaged.
Chris Goodson is the developer of the property involved in the second blaze as well as president of the St. Louis police board.
"This comes as obviously just a shot in the gut," Goodson said. "But I can tell you I know from experience we've got the best police and the best fire guys on the job, and they're going to find out why these are occurring and who is responsible, if any. I can guarantee you that."
St. Louis Fire Captain Steve Simpson says crews are not sure if these fires are connected with a similar incident in April that was ruled as an arson.
"The police department hasn't had an arrest or anything yet," Simpson said. "So we're going to treat this the same way; the guys are going to go in and do their job and try to ascertain information to try to find out exactly what started both of these fires. Again very suspicious."
No one was injured in either fire.