Apartment Building

GOSHEN - An apartment house in Goshen caught fire around 8:30 Tuesday morning, and firefighters were quickly called to remove someone from the balcony of the building. Police are now ruling the fire an arson. The blaze was in the 100 block of S. 7th St. between Lincoln and Washington. The fire started in the kitchen and was contained to the 2nd floor of the older home that had been subdivided into an apartment house. When they arrived, firefighters found Lindsay Baker standing on the balcony of her upstairs unit.

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A Las Vegas couple has been indicted on murder and conspiracy charges in the slaying of an apartment owner whose body was found in a garment box outside a downtown apartment building. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports 20-year-olds Anthony Stiger and Melanie Costantini also were indicted on one count each of armed robbery and burglary in the slaying of 58-year-old Harold Myles Shilberg. They could face the death penalty. The indictment handed up Wednesday moves the case to state court.

NEW CASTLE, Ind. (AP) - A central Indiana judge has postponed for the fifth time the murder trial of a man accused of setting a fire that killed a 64-year-old woman. Fifty-year-old Donald G. Guffey's trial had been set for March 19, but a Henry Circuit Court judge recently granted a request by Guffey's public defender for a continuance. The Star Press reports ( http://tspne.ws/xRDjJO ) the judge will set a new trial date for Guffey at a March 1 hearing.

SOUTH BEND -- About 1 a.m. Thursday, Lucy Mundia called police to complain that her estranged husband had shown up at her apartment in violation of a protective order she had filed on behalf of their 6-year-old child. City police arrested Mundia's husband, Edward Mwaura, on suspicion of invasion of privacy, a Class A misdemeanor , and took him to the St. Joseph County Jail, where he was booked just before 7:30 a.m., according to jail records . By 1:30 p.m. the same day, Mwaura was free.

SOUTH BEND - As temperatures soar, local agencies are worried about the elderly. "Meals on Wheels" volunteers checked on seniors and shut-ins during the lunch hour. George Hawthorne is the director of Real Service's Nutrition and Transportation Department. He and his volunteers are out, ready to serve the city of South Bend. The first stop Wednesday was an apartment building on West Western Avenue. As the heat and humidity continued to climb during the lunch hour, George said it was hard to remember days like this.

Residents of a South Bend apartment building, including children, were evacuated and taken to the hospital early Wednesday after they were sickened by carbon monoxide. Emergency crews were sent to the building, in the 200 block of East Calvert Street, about 2:25 a.m. When firefighters arrived, they found dangerous levels of carbon monoxide, said South Bend Fire Battalion Chief Davis Maenhout. The carbon monoxide leak was caused by a boiler malfunction and affected seven occupied units in the building.

Fire investigators are still looking into what caused an apartment fire in Elkhart that caused two people to be flown to a burn center in Fort Wayne.  The fire started Tuesday morning around 6:45 at a building on the corner of W. Franklin Street and W Marion Street. Witnesses are calling this fire suspicious. CLICK HERE FOR A MAP WSBT spoke with the fire investigator. He told us he has yet to rule on the cause.  Witnesses say after they heard explosions and saw fire, they saw a man running from the building with something wrapped in a white cloth...and he threw a backpack behind a nearby dumpster before running from the area.  The building is a Laundromat and an apartment building. Firefighters believe the fire started in a downstairs apartment unit.  People who live upstairs and evacuated for the fire told WSBT they heard some loud explosions and pops.  When investigators went inside to investigate, they found propane torches and remnants of a gas can - the investigator told us he is not sure if those items contributed to the fire.  When police looked inside that backpack, they found a pellet gun.  Two people were taken to the hospital.

The devastating weekend fire near downtown Elkhart that destroyed three buildings and sent three people to the hospital is still under investigation. Officials aren't sure what sparked the fire, but are not ruling out that it could be suspicious. Elkhart Fire Division Chief Kent Stouder says the fire definitely started at the old Tony's Shoe Store on East Street and spread quickly to the Polk Lifeline Youth in Christ Center and a three-unit apartment complex next door.

SOUTH BEND -- A pan left unattended on a stove may not sound like a big deal, but early Thursday morning, it was. It sparked a fire at the Park Jefferson Apartments that forced dozens to get out quick and at least eight of them to find a new home. One person went to the hospital for smoke inhalation, but was treated and released. Rigoberto Padilla carried what he could from his charred apartment building Thursday morning.   "Last night I couldn't go to bed. I was thinking and thinking I was lucky to get out on time," says Padilla.

LA PORTE - Police in La Porte are pursuing charges against a woman for leaving a dog inside a locked van Tuesday with the windows rolled up during 80 degree temperatures. Officer Joe Blake about 6:30 p.m. responded to a complaint outside the Rumely Historic Apartments at 800 Michigan Ave. In his report, Blake said he found a small dog inside the van with all of the windows completely rolled up and doors locked. The dog was jumping back and forth on the driver and passenger seats and panting, said officer Blake.