CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WBOY) — Does it seem like there have been a lot of fires in abandoned Clarksburg homes? 12 News has covered at least seven of them so far this year.

Those fires include Tuesday’s on High Street, a very smoky fire on Waldeck Street on Sept. 1, a June 26 fire on Coplin Avenue, an Adams Avenue fire on May 7, a fire that destroyed an empty Clay Avenue home on April 4, and on Washington Avenue, there was a fire that damaged two empty home on March 10 and another fire at a condemned home next door five days later, on March 15.

In most cases when 12 News sent crews to those fires, they were told that the homes were empty, with the utilities disconnected and that the City Fire Marshal was investigating the cause. On Wednesday, 12 News called Clarksburg Fire Marshal Lt. Jason Stalnaker asking what his office was able to share about the investigations.

Stalnaker said that Clarksburg has more vacant homes and that vacant homes are more likely to catch fire. He also said that the number of fires so far this year has been pretty typical of past years.

He said, in some of the cases, witnesses reported that there was previous vagrant activity around some of the vacant homes.

Stalnaker said because the incidents are still under investigation, he couldn’t share any other information.