Firefighters extinguish a fire in an abandoned home on Balsam Street in Colorado Springs.
/ FOX21: Kelli Norris
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Fire officials are investigating an early morning fire in an abandoned home on the northeast side of Colorado Springs.
Around 7:45 Sunday morning, the Colorado Springs Fire Department responded to the 5100 block of Balsam Street after receiving reports of smoke billowing from the home's basement.
Authorities said fire crews were able to extinguish the fire quickly but had to take extra precaution because the house is condemned with black mold. The fire was contained to the basement, but the first and second floors were also damaged.
Officials are calling the fire suspicious but have not declared it to be arson.
"Right now we're not leaning that way because we understand it is cold, and there are people without homes," Lt. Stacy Billapando with the Colorado Springs Fire Department said. "We just don't have the evidence to prove that."
Fire officials said investigators plan to talk with neighbors to determine what or who is to blame.
Seth Wait, who lives across the street from the abandoned home, said he and another neighbor have noticed teenagers hanging out around the home.
"They've been running in and out of there for awhile now," Wait said. "They break windows and that kind of thing."
Wait said the home has been abandoned for nearly five years and previously belonged to an older gentlemen before it was foreclosed.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKXRM