LORAIN — A fire overnight caused “heavy, heavy damage” to a Lorain pizza shop, according to Fire Chief Tom Brown.

And the Fire Department’s Fire Prevention Bureau and the Lorain Police Department are looking into whether it was intentionally set, according to Assistant Chief Randy Hupp.

Hupp said the scene is being investigated as a “possible break-in and possible arson” due to evidence found at the scene. He declined to go into detail on what that evidence was.

The fire, called in about 4:15 a.m. devastated D’Tutanelli’s Pizza at East Erie and Georgia avenues, which just opened a couple years ago under new management. It was formerly Granny D’s pizza and was the site of the 2007 murder of its owner at the time, David Kowalczyk.

The fire started in a back storage area, according to Brown, but the entire building sustained smoke and water damage. Hupp said damage was estimated at $125,000 to the building and $50,000 to its contents. He said the building and contents had been valued at $350,000.

Hupp said firefighters arrived to find “heavy fire coming from an east-side window” and he said it was apparent the fire had been burning for some time.

East Erie Avenue was closed between Georgia and Florida avenues for several hours as firefighters battled the fire.

Check back at Chroniclet.com for more on this story as it becomes available.

LORAIN — The Lorain Fire Department says a fire that damaged a vacant home in South Lorain this afternoon is being considered suspicious.

The Fire Department was called to 4208 Riverside Drive a little before 1 p.m.

Upon arrival, firefighters found about a 10-foot square of vinyl siding on the outside rear corner of the home burning, according to fire Capt. Tom Sultzer. Firefighters had the fire out in under 10 minutes he said.

Sultzer estimated damage at $1,000.

He said the front door of the home was unsecured. The department’s Fire Prevention Bureau is investigating the fire.

Sultzer said there was no indication to him what might have caused the fire.

Curious why crews working on the street in front of their house left without finishing the job Friday, Rachel Gayhart and her husband, James, decided to look through footage from their surveillance camera.

What they wound up seeing reminded Rachel of “something out of a horror movie.”

Rachel Gayhart, 32, said she was getting ready to leave for lunch with her husband about 11:30 a.m. Friday when she saw crews setting up at the end of her driveway at 2855 Wilson St. on Lorain’s east side. She remembers asking them not to block her in because she would be leaving.

“I left, came home about 2 o’clock, and noticed the (temporary) patch was still there,” she said.

When James, 34, came home Friday night, he suggested looking at footage from the security camera.

“We rewound the security camera to see what they did,” she said. “At the speed we were watching it we just saw (one of the workers) walking up our driveway.”

Slowing it way down revealed the horrifying site.

As a worker operates a large piece of machinery in the road, a large circular saw blade — about three feet in diameter — comes loose and flies out of the machine.

“In slow motion we could see this circular thing come bouncing up the driveway,” she said. They went outside and saw gouges in the apron of the driveway, gouges in the grass of a neighbor’s yard and a large laceration, where the blade had lodged in the side of the house next door, right underneath a front bedroom window.”

Of the worker, Gayhart said, “He puts his hands on his hips, looking around like ‘I wonder if anyone else saw this’ ” before walking up the drive to retrieve the blade.

“Just out of shot of the camera, he’s taking it out of the house before looking at the blade spots in the yard,” she said. “He the puts blade back in machine, finishes cutting up the patch and drives away.”

After calling police and leaving a message for the Lorain Utilities Department, Gayhart said her husband set to work putting together a video for Youtube.

The finished video, titled “How To Not Repair A Street (Or, what happens if the cutting wheel is not properly secured),” is a combination of security footage and photos set to the fast-paced “Sabre Dance” song.

A little before noon today, Rachel was still waiting to hear back from the Utilities Department but said someone, apparently from the city, had been outside inspecting the blade marks.

The Utility Department referred calls to Ken Shawver, Lorain chief deputy safety-service director. He did not immediately return a phone call.

Rachel Gayhart said she and her husband want some answers, adding “We don’t know if he actually told anybody that he damaged the house.”

But they’re also thankful nothing worse happened.

“Had it been like two feet to the west, it would have hit a gas main,” Gayhart said.

And the house it became lodged in is now unoccupied, but “the people that lived in the house before had five kids that were always outside,” she said.

And the reaction to the Youtube video?

“We both put it on our Facebook pages,” Gayhart said. “Not to many people were surprised that it happened in Lorain.”

Contact Rona Proudfoot at 329-7124 or rproudfoot@chroniclet.com.

CT photo by Bruce Bishop.

Power has been restored in Sheffield and Sheffield Lake after problems at a substation in Lorain left some areas of the cities without power for a little under two hours this morning.

In all 2,178 homes and business were affected, according to a FirstEnergy spokesman.

Of those, 794 customers had their power back on by 11:30, and the remaining 1384 had power restored before noon.

Brookside High School sent students home at noon, just as police directing traffic were reporting that lights were coming back on.

Were you affected by the power outage? Leave us a comment and let us know how.