FIRE DESTROYS VACANT BUILDING

Bakersfield Fire arson investigators are looking into the cause of a fire this morning that gutted a vacant building on California and Pershing avenues. Battalion Chief John Frando says it may have been accidentally sparked by a warming or cooking fire used by squatters that got out of control, and crews arrived around 4:30 to find the roof and front wall ready to collapse. County firefighters responded to a structure fire on Wilson Avenue in Oildale around 2:45am and a vegetation fire an hour later on Cameron Road.

Suzanne Grant