By Wally Kennedy
wkennedy@joplinglobe.com
PICHER, Okla. — The vacant houses used recently in the making of a hard-core horror film in Picher burned to the ground Sunday night, authorities said Monday.
Two of the three houses that burned were featured in “Bad Girls Burn in Hell,” which was filmed in Picher earlier this month by deathfactoryinc.com.
Firefighters in Picher were called to the fires, but no one with the volunteer department who could answer questions about the fires was available Monday.
Gary Graham, police chief at Quapaw, said the Quapaw Fire Department was alerted to the fires about 3:45 a.m. Monday.
“It’s certainly suspicious,” he said. “The houses were vacant and had no utilities. We’ll know more Wednesday morning after an investigator with the state fire marshal’s office arrives.”
Johnny Seeling, with Twin Bridges Co., said two of houses were to be demolished, but that one of the houses had been sold to a family that was planning to move it to a new location outside of Picher. Seeling said the family had placed a deposit on the property. He said the deposit has been refunded.
Seeling said he received a telephone call about 4 a.m. Monday that the houses had been torched.
“It’s definitely arson,” he said. “With no utilities, it’s obvious someone intentionally set them on fire. That whole strip of houses along there are gone now.”
Twin Bridges Co., until recently, held the contract to either demolish or move structures that were bought out by the Lead-Impacted Communities Relocation Assistance Trust. Residents of the town are being bought out and relocated by the trust because large areas of the town could cave in. Picher, once a leading producer of lead and zinc ores, is heavily undermined.
The company gave the filmmakers permission to use the houses, but the trust shut the operation down after rumors started circulating that a porn film was being shot. The trust denied access to the houses because it controls the land on which the houses sit.
Todd Ingold, a spokesman for the film company who was interviewed at the site when the filming stopped, said no porn film was being shot there.
One of the filmmakers, Joe Hollow, in a recent YouTube post, said 75 percent of the movie had been shot. He said the film crew was planning to return to Picher in January to finish the movie.
Hollow could not be reached for comment Monday.
Side by side
The houses were located side by side on the west side of Oneida Street, west of Picher High School.
