Voorhies Fire Appears To Be Arson

A fire that destroyed a piece of Southern Oregon history appears to have been human caused. The fire destroyed a 158-year-old building near the Voorhies Mansion off South Stage Road.

No one was living in the home but owners say transients are known to wander through the area and may have been seeking shelter from the cold.

Fire investigators say the fire looks human caused but with the amount of damage it will be difficult to rule out whether the fire was set maliciously and who might have set it.

Flames shot into the foggy morning sky as fire crews battled to put them out. Believing no one inside they took a defensive stance and fought the fire from the outside.

"The building appeared to be vacated. It was boarded up and at the time of the first arriving unit it was halfway consumed already. It was very late notice. Probably due to weather," says Ken Goodson, Medford Fire Department Battalion Chief.

Fire fighters say the fog may have kept anyone from noticing the fire. When witnesses did, they still weren't sure where the flames were coming from.

"The callers that called it in didn't have an exact location so it slowed down our water tenders, or the need for water tenders," says Goodson.

Fire fighters stayed on scene into the afternoon hours pouring water on the fire that kept restarting.

"The home is completely destroyed," says Goodson.

The house was being used to store the owners antique furniture.

In a statement Thursday morning, co-owner and general manager Anne Root says, "The history of Eden Valley Orchards has suffered a great loss today with a fire that burned one of its most significant buildings."

The wood in the building was all original construction from 1850 and Root says she and her husband were trying to preserve it. They had boarded up all the windows and placed moth balls inside, in the hopes of turning it into a museum to reflect Southern Oregon's pear farming history.

The root family statement continued, "We are deeply saddened by the loss of the significant piece of the region's history and like other historical structures cannot be replaced."

The house was originally built as a donation land claim house.

It is the third prominent structure to burn in the Rogue Valley this year. The 150-year-old Colver House in Phoenix burned down in September. And just up the road from the Voorhies Mansion the Fabulous Mr. Thom's was destroyed by fire in July.