AUBURN – State and local officials are still investigating a pair of arson fires set earlier this month in homes less than half a mile apart.

Investigators believe the fires may be linked and that they could be related to earlier crimes in the same neighborhood.

Both fires involved single-story ranches with vacationing homeowners, officials said. Both also had evidence of break-ins, according to state Fire Investigator Dan Roy. The homes are both in an area between Court Street and Minot Avenue.

In the first fire, a neighbor heard a smoke detector outside 29 Marshall Ave. the morning of Aug. 7 and called for help, Roy said.

That fire started in the basement and did not spread to the rest of the house. It extinguished itself by the time firefighters arrived, Roy said. Part of the basement ceiling sagged, and there was smoke damage to the rest of the house, he added.

Roy estimated damage at $40,000. Police reached homeowners Charles and Dorothy Kerr on vacation to notify them of the fire.

Later that afternoon, a second call came in after a neighbor smelled smoke outside 38 Hampton Ave. That fire was contained in a bedroom and was almost out when firefighters arrived.

Officials identified that homeowner as Russell Phelen. The house sustained between $25,000 and $40,000 in damage, fire officials said. Both houses were insured.

Neither fire was an accident, Roy said, with evidence pointing toward the cause of both being “intentional human element.” He declined to release details of how they were set or how the homes were broken into.

Roy and others from the state Fire Marshal’s Office are continuing to investigate the fires.