Wire stripped from Warren building

WARREN — Copper thieves apparently struck again at a commercial building on McMyler Street Northwest, though their efforts apparently didn’t get them very much.

Warren firefighters responded to a fire call at 1824 McMyler at 9:22 a.m. Saturday, finding a building full of smoke.

Firefighters forced their way in and then used thermal imaging equipment to locate the source of the smoke toward the center of the building — a pile of burning wiring.

The fire was extinguished without anything more than smoke damage to the building, and no injuries were reported.

Because the wiring in the building had been stripped away, firefighters believe vandals had attempted to strip the plastic coating off of the wiring by setting it on fire inside the building.

The vandals were gone when firefighters arrived.

“It looks like the smoke got too thick and they backed out,” a fireman said. The building has been vandalized in the past, he said.