By late morning Monday, Anthem the arson dog had sniffed out no proof that two fires in Penacook – less than a mile apart and reported within two hours of each other – were deliberately set.

While Concord Fire Chief John Chisholm said no conclusions had been reached, the circumstances certainly sounded alarm bells.

“Any time we have fires that are that close in time and distance, we consider (arson),” Chisholm said by phone. “But it’s too early to make a comment on that at this time. We’re moving forward, and we may rule absolutely that it was not arson, but we do take that into consideration.”

No one was hurt in either incident. Both fires occurred during the early morning hours Monday. The first, located at 60 Village Street, burned a small outbuilding, behind Penacook Elementary School, to the ground. Concord firefighters received that call for help at 1:08 a.m.

“Crews extinguished the remaining fire and cleared the scene at 1:58 a.m.,” Chisholm relayed in a statement.

Then, at 2:43 a.m., just 45 minutes after clearing the scent of the other fire, crews responded to a building at 191 Village Street, where Cheney Apple House Furniture stores and sells its older clearance stock. Cheney remains open and the inventory in its main location was untouched.

Firefighters arrived to what was described by Chisholm as a “heavy fire.” The fire started in the left rear corner of the building, facing Lilac Street, pushing thick billows of black smoke skyward while flames spread inside.

As a locked storage facility, firefighters were confident no one was trapped inside.

“We were not worried about people being in there like you’d see in a house fire,” said Captain Alan Robidas of the Concord Fire Department. “We took it pretty slow and safe.”

Asked if the facility was a total loss, Robidas said, “I would assume it is.”

Tom Cheney, the longtime owner of the business, shared the assessment. “I don’t think it’s salvageable,” he said.

“Due to the amount of fire and amount of furniture stored inside, crews initiated a defensive fire attack by spraying large volumes of water into the building through the windows,” Concord Fire officials explained in a statement.

“We have a lot of petroleum-based products in there right now, and it’s still releasing vapors and gases, fumes that are not healthy for us,” Robidas added.

Meanwhile, the State Fire Marshal’s Office is continuing to investigate if accelerants were deliberately used to cause either blaze.

Fire units from Boscawen, Franklin, Loudon, Hopkinton, Bow, Pembroke, Chichester, Hooksett and Manchester assisted Concord firefighters at the furniture store fire. The Capital Area chief and deputy chief coordinators were also at the scene, and ambulance units from Tilton-Northfield, Goffstown, Epsom, Henniker and Penacook covered the city while crews worked at the scene.

A second alarm was called at 3:04 a.m., and another alarm alerted all off-duty Concord firefighters that their help might be needed.

The fire was under control at 4:42 a.m. and left piles of rubble, smashed windows and charred furniture in front of the building on Village Street. The smell of burnt wood and smoke lingered some 30 yards away from the charred furniture facility.

Police cordoned off the front of the building with yellow tape, and later expanded that area to Lilac Street, blocking access with tape stuck to a stop sign and a wood post across the street.

Two detectives from the Concord Police Department were at the scene, as officials began the arduous task of figuring out how the two fires started.

Adam Fanjoy, the deputy state fire marshal, partners with Anthem, who’s seven years old and been on the job for five years. His nose is trained to smell ignitable liquid, which could mean the fires were set by an arsonist.

“There’s more to do,” Fanjoy said. “He’s still working on it.”

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