SALEM — Authorities are considering fires in the same neighborhood on consecutive Saturdays as suspicious.

An early-morning fire Saturday destroyed a Webster Street home while the family was away, according to officials. A Feb. 11 fire destroyed about half of an abandoned and boarded-up house at 70 N. Policy St.

The Salem Police Department's Twitter account said the police department was assisting the fire department in “investigating 2 suspicious fires in the N Policy St/Webster St area.”

Fire Capt. Tim Kenney said the house in Saturday's fire was “a stone's throw” from the building where the first fire occurred.

In this weekend's fire, Kenney said the two-and-a-half story house at 7 Webster St. was a “complete loss.” And he said the family of five also suffered a “significant loss of personal items.”

The fire was reported at 4:35 a.m. and when the first engine arrived on the scene three minutes later, “there was fire coming out of every opening in the house,” Kenney said.

Fortunately, no one was home, he said. “The parents were away and the kids were off at a babysitter's being taken care of.”

Two family dogs were also being boarded at a kennel.

Kenney said the fire apparently started in a rear patio area.

Neighbors who met the firefighters as they arrived told them a couple and their three children live there, Kenney said.

But there were no cars in the driveway and it was quickly determined that no one was home.

Kenney said the fire marshal and police are investigating, and the cause of the fire has not yet been determined. An excavator was used to tear down part of the house, so firefighters could completely extinguish the flames.

The American Red Cross was assisting at the fire scene Saturday morning.

In the earlier fire, a passer-by reported the fire at about 11 p.m.

The single-family house is located across the street from Canobie Lake Park and is owned by the park. That fire's cause was under investigation.