Two abandoned house fires within a week in Opelousas are raising questions about the causes.

The two fires occurred at 717 South Academy St. and 238 North Railroad Ave.

Opelousas Fire Chief Charles Mason says there isn’t a spike in abandoned house fires but there are rumors of similarities between the two.

“Neighbors have complained about homeless and people going in these empty homes and finding shelter and certain activities,” says Mason.

Sometimes those activities may even involve cooking.

“Like their home they’re going to cook, do anything for lighting, unfortunately sometimes it’s candles for lighting and anything they can burn they use to stay warm when it’s cold and to cook with,” says Mason.

Mason says sometimes the cooking strategies get well, interesting.

“Some of the neighbors told us that one of the empty homes they saw somebody actually going inside of it with a barbecue pit,” says Mason.

It also doesn’t matter if it is your home or nobody has stayed in the place for 30 years.

The punishment is all the same.

“If someone owns a home and they may be planning on remodeling the home and someone comes in and burns it. Yeah that’s arson…you’re destroying someone’s property,” says Mason.

Mason says the fire department is still investigating the two cases.