A mysterious series of fires has terrorized one family in Hopewell near Thornville. The strange part of this story is it isn’t entirely unheard of. In fact, there have been several families who, over the course of the past several years have been afflicted with a strange fire starting spirit. If it sounds familiar, just last year a series of incidents involving a fire starting poltergeist terrorized a family in Germany.
And in 1971 a story ran in local newspapers about one family in Alabama and their lives which had been turned into a living nightmare after a series of fires started breaking out throughout their house. The fires were suspected of being of Earthly origin – namely a child which had started them. Still, that seems unlikely in this more recent and disturbing case.
The fires have been starting in multiple houses where the family is sprawled out. The fires, which seem to catch with or without any fuel, have claimed everything from mattresses to heavy sinks which are then consumed and even melted. The slag from the melted sinks were left in the yard after they were removed. The fires, in order to reach a sufficient heat to destroy these objects could not have been fueled by any of the household chemicals the Mthembu family had present. And in fact they have not been limited to just the few pieces of furniture listed above. They have spread to stereos, CD collections, and even the cash held in the family’s house – calling into serious doubt whether this is simply a ploy to get money by the owners of the household. Several rooms have been completely consumed and their contents have been left charred while the rest of the house remains relatively untouched and some of the houses untouched altogether.
So what could it be? Poltergeists have a long history of setting fires and generally causing conflagrations throughout their owners’ lives. Aside from the standard knocking and mischievous knocking over of items and even the occasional throwing of a book across the room, these poltergeists are known to cause a number of strange phenomena. But the sheer amount of power required to not only start a fire, but fuel it to the point of turning a steel sink into a pile of molten twisted metal is far more than paranormal investigators are used to. The Enfield Poltergeist, which was known to cause electrical failures and fires was said to have once actually caused a fish tank to boil over and ultimately explode sending searing hot water and rocks streaming throughout a room almost injuring those present and investigating the phenomenon.
While it is unknown what lies in store for the Mthembu family while investigating this mysterious phenomenon that has taken over their lives, someone in the family almost always soon finds themselves under the intense scrutiny of the investigators after being suspected of causing the incidents. But with such a loss in material goods in this case, it’s difficult to imagine what the motivation would be for the Mthembu family.