Flames erupted Monday night at a Butler house vacant and without utilities since a damaging fire nine months ago.

The latest fire at 215 W. Diamond St. caused enough damage that city officials quickly moved to demolish it.

“Hopefully by noon,” Butler Fire Chief Nick Ban said earlier this morning, “it will be on the ground.”

Trooper Duwayne Baird of the state police fire marshal's office in Butler sifted through debris and rubble but what started the blaze is unknown.

Authorities, however, did not rule out one possibility — squatters.

“Neighbors told us they've seen squatters in and out the house for some time,” Ban said.

Monday's fire was reported about 7:45 p.m. at the two-story house with an attic. By the time firefighters got there, flames had already seized momentum.

“There was a tremendous column of smoke,” Ban said. “Fire was blowing out the basement and first floor.”

The condition of the house, condemned after the fire in January, prevented firefighters from making an interior attack.

Instead, Ban said, the top priority was keeping flames from spreading to houses — just feet away — on either side.

Firefighters helped evacuate a family of three adults and four children living at 213 W. Diamond St., while crews battled the blaze with hand lines around the house.

The department's ladder truck was deployed to help fight the blaze from above.

The balloon construction of the older house allowed the fire to travel quickly from the first floor into the second floor and attic, Ban said.

“We had fire blowing out everywhere,” he said.

Firefighters had the blaze at bay within an hour.

“The guys did a helluva job,” Ban said. “There was very little damage to the other houses.”

He estimated damage at “no more than $15,000.”

Following the fire, Ban contacted Mayor Maggie Stock and the two inspected the badly-damaged house. The officials agreed to move on a site-specific demolition plan.

Ban said he planned to prepare the paperwork for Stock to sign. A demolition team was to be at the house by lunch time.

Authorities hoped that the house, reportedly owned by a finance company in Philadelphia, would be torn down in an hour's time.

Ban said he condemned the house Jan. 21 when the fire rendered it uninhabitable. Then-owner Donna Fehl and four others were living there at the time. No one was hurt.

Fehl, 67, said Monday night that she had lived in the home for 25 years before moving out in January. She was financing the home.

Fehl, who now lives at 402 Chestnut St., watched the latest fire from across the street among dozens of other people.

She said she had a few personal items in the home, like furniture, a dining room table, a rocking chair.

“There wasn't anybody here in the last two to three days,” she said.

Regarding the fires, she said, “It had to be someone playing around that wasn't supposed to.”

She added, “I knew they were going to tear it down.

“I don't even know why they're trying to save it.

The home's electric, gas and water remained shut off since the January fire. But despite the lack of utilities and the home's unsafe condition, squatters reportedly took up quarters there.

A pizza delivery driver even told authorities that he made a delivery there about three weeks ago.

Baird did not rule out that Monday's fire was accidentally — or intentionally — set by squatters or someone else.

But the cause will go down as “undetermined,” he said.

“The damage was too extensive,” Baird said, “and the house was too unsafe to go through.”

Butler police were unavailable for comment this morning.