ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

ST. LOUIS Ìý• A fire that began in a vacant historic mansion with ties to Mark Twain grew to four alarms early Wednesday as it spread to at least two nearby buildings because of windy conditions.

Another building three blocks away also caught fire, within minutes of the first fire, but it wasn't downwind so embers aren't necessarily the culprit —Ìýraising suspicions about the likelihood of arson.

All of the fires are within the area being redeveloped by Paul McKee. The vacant mansion that burned was built by Twain's uncle, James Clemens Jr., and owned by McKee's Northside Regeneration.Ìý

“It’s a devastating loss,� McKee said. "It’s an incredible historic monument. I bought it, (my wife) Midge and I did, to save the building.�

The interior was nearly all wood, he said, and it appears to be "totally gone."

“What just burned is the most unbelievable woodwork you’ve ever seen,â€� McKee said. Ìý

One man at a house hit by embers apparently suffered minor smoke inhalation while trying to douse flames with a pan full of water. No other injuries were reported.

Arson investigators have descended on the four-block area to find the cause.

Officials tell of a frantic morning with back-to-back fire calls that eventually summoned 100 firefighters to the area north of downtown.

The first report came at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday for a fire near the intersection of Helen and Mullanphy streets, in the city's neighborhood.

ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Fire Capt. Garon Mosby said flames had engulfed the structure, front to back, by the time firefighters got there. Commanders at first wrongly sized it up as a four-story warehouse. It was hard to see because it was "full of fire," Mosby said. The flames also destroyed structures adjoining the mansion that once housed a chapel and convent.

As firefighters tackled that blaze, another call came in for a fire three blocks away, at 15th Street and Cass Avenue. There, they found a vacant two-story, mixed-use building in flames. Crews scrambled to get to that scene just as fires were being detected at two homes in the 1600 block of Helen Street.Ìý

Red-hot embers had floated two blocks northeast from the Clemens House, sparking fires at the homes on Helen. Firefighters sprayed down roofs in the neighborhood to prevent embers from starting more fires.

One of the buildings that caught fire due to the embers is a vacant and long-ago boarded up townhome known as the Sherman House, 1630 Helen Street. A sign in front boasts "Historic Restoration Coming Soon." Next door is Leon Bell's two-story flat, where Bell escaped along with his adult son, two daughters and four grandchildren.

Bell, 70, said a neighbor saw two men running from the Clemens House area about 3 a.m. Bell said he suspects arson. He said McKee's controversial and long-delayed NorthSide Regeneration project has many enemies in the neighborhood.

Bell, who is with a neighborhood watch group, said he awoke about 3:30 a.m. to make his daily rounds. When he opened the door, the sky was filled with what looked like a million fireflies, seven or eight inches long, he said. They were red-hot embers falling on homes on Helen Street.

"We've never seen anything like it," he said. "The sky was lit up like the Fourth of July."

He looked to the south and saw flames a block away, shooting 100 feet or more into the sky, he said. He saw the cinders landing on rooftops of neighbors homes and alerted them. When he got back home, he saw that his own home was on fire. An ember had latched onto the window sill on the second floor, outside his son's bedroom.

"My son started putting it out with pans of water," he said.

The Clemens house, at 1849 Cass, was a Greek-revival style mansion. Twain was said to have visited several times. The house was later sold to the Sisters of St. Joseph, who added a chapel and expanded the property. But it had stood vacant in recent years.ÌýIt became a city landmark in 1971.

McKee’s NorthSide plan encompasses some 1,500 acres north of downtown, but work has been stalled for years amid legal battles and uncertainty over whether the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency would choose a site for its new facility within the footprint. Some residents grew impatient as McKee amassed land during the past decade, accusing him of letting properties deteriorate and making grand promises without actually breaking ground.

The Clemens house is just down the street from the future site of the NGA, which includes land that McKee sold back to the city in a deal negotiated in 2015. The city and McKee hope the $1.7 billion project will serve as an anchor and boost property values in a part of town that has long struggled with disinvestment.

In a 2009 story in the Post-Dispatch, McKee said he was partnering with a downtown rehabber and hoped to renovate the Clemons House into senior apartments and a museum honoring the heritage of the neighborhoods around it. In 2010, , but the developers couldn't find other investors, and the bond opportunity passed.Ìý

McKee said most recently, he asked Telesis Corp., Ìýjust to the north, to see if it could include the property in its plans.Ìý

“We were trying to come out it from a different way with Telesis recently,â€� McKee said.Ìý

For years, and as recently as 2015, the Clemens House was on the Landmarks Association of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Inc.'s list of "most endangered" structures in the region.

"Every year there is less and less to save of the (Clemens) Mansion and its associated chapel," the association said on its website. "Open to vandals and the elements for years, the buildings offer a sad commentary on how even high profile and highly significant buildings are allowed to fade into oblivion in a city that lacks the will and authority (or at least selectively wields them) to hold derelict absentee property owners like O’Fallon MO based Northside Regeneration accountable for the condition of their buildings."

Andrew Weil, executive director of Landmarks Association, saidÌýthe mansion, the chapel and the vacant convent were all in horrific condition, missing windows and a roof and left exposed to the elements and to vandals and thieves. When he read online Wednesday morning about the fire that destroyed the Clemens House, Weil said he felt like a friend had died.

"This is a very very important building, and it's just been crumbling and crumbling and crumbling," Weil said. "You watch it erode every year, and now it's gone."

"The real issue in my mind is, properties like this —Ìýwhich are really important pieces of our city's architectural heritage and our city's historyÌý—Ìýare allowed to fall into such disrepair," Weil said. "Vandalism is a big problem. The city lacks the ability and will to hold property owners accountable when they let their property get to that point."

McKee said he has lost about 10 to 12 buildings in his Northside Regeneration footprint to fires, including one last year in Old North ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½. The Clemens HouseÌýis the largest that has been destroyed in a blaze, he said. In the past, it's generally because homeless people use the empty structures for shelter.Ìý“Most of that is in the wintertime, when they’re in these old buildings and start a fire in a barrel or something,â€� McKee said.ÌýMcKee said one other building he owns was partly damaged by fire Wednesday, but that he didn't yet know the extent.Ìý

All of the fires were under control by 6 a.m., but fire in one building rekindled about four hours later, and crews were back at work to snuff out those flames.Ìý

The Fire Department's Fire Investigation Unit is handling the investigation. No arrests had been made Wednesday.

ÌýJacob Barker of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.