An early morning blaze has destroyed one of the houses that make up the Heidelberg Project on Detroit’s east side.
Tom Greenwood, in the Detroit News, reports a fire official saying the blaze was probably deliberate.
"I'm sure it's some sort of arson," Battalion Chief Kevin Kortas said of the 4:30 a.m. blaze that destroyed a portion of the internationally known streetscape near the intersection of Heidelberg and Ellery streets. "There was no electricity."
The cause of the fire is officially undetermined at this point, Kortas said. It would be up to the Arson Squad to determine the cause.
WDIV-TV reported artist Tyree Guyton might build another installation using the blackened timbers from the fire.
The Free Press reports Jenenne Whitfield, the project’s executive director, said an overnight fire destroyed one of the project’s most popular structures, Obstruction of Justice House, also known as the OJ House. Its reconversion as an art object dates to 1995.
WDIV-TV reports the fire broke out at 3:15 a.m. and rekindled at 7 a.m.
The O.J. House -- or "Obstruction of Justice House" was one part of artist Guyton's world-famous installation that sprawls over two long blocks off of Mt. Elliott, near Mack.
