Old houses tend to be very flammable, all that old wood and stuff. There were always a lot of fires back home in the older sections of town - wiring giving out, mostly. Wasn't uncommon to have 2,3, maybe more small fires a week...every so often one of them would turn into a big fire and there'd be a new empty lot that would just collect weeds and bottles. Couple of them turned out to be arson, one of the local retards thought it was funny to burn things, but by and large it was just fire in an old wooden structure.
Houses burn down when insurance won't cover shit tenant break. Bad weather causes electrical fires with homes without flood insurance. Strange, isn't it?
It is very strange. But what can you do when you're living in a dry wooden box with no fireproofing? Things like this happen.
More strangeness!