FORT COVINGTON — Fort Covington volunteers were sent out late Monday to the third suspicious fire on Water Street in four weeks.

The former two-story apartment building on Water Street was destroyed near a vacant lot and the former site of the French Mill Restaurant, said Fort Covington Fire Department Chief Bob Hosler.

The building hadn’t been used in years, and there was no electricity running to it, he said.

The two previous fires were another abandoned building and a garage attached to a house.

“When I arrived, the back of the building was fully engulfed,” Hosler said of Monday’s blaze, which was reported to Franklin County Fire Control at 11:34 p.m.

Mutual Aid was called in from Bombay, Westville and Hogansburg-Akwesasne fire units.

“We knocked the fire down right away, but it got into the attic area,” Hosler said. “We had a hard time getting at it because of the number of roofs. We had to peel off all that tin.

“We used the ladder truck from Hogansburg, and that came in handy for that,” he said.

The county’s Cause and Origin Team is investigating Monday’s blaze and whether the three Water Street fires are tied together.

E-mail Denise Raymo at:

draymo@pressrepublican.com