A gazebo attached to a house in the woods off Whitfield Road caught fire, according to Orange County Fire Marshal Mike Tapp. Then the wind-whipped fire spread to the home.

The cause was probably a candle or a cigarette in the gazebo, Tapp said.

The thing is, the house at 2312 Whitfield Road hasn't been repaired since. It looks like a haunted house, with boards covering most of the openings and black char covering some of the white facade.

One front window, however, is uncovered and open.

And that's what concerns Daryl Freedman, who lives about a mile away in the Stoneridge-Sedgefield subdivision. Freedman drives past the house every day and worries about vagrants using the house, which she describes as an "eyesore."

There had been a trailer on the property, and people started using it for smoking and drugs, she said. She tried to call the house's owner but had no success.

"We have a lot of homeless people on N.C. 86 and I-40, and I don't know where they go, but people like that are apt to start using [the house]," she said. "And we don't know what could go wrong. If they try to build a fire, especially with how dry everything is, I will be calling for a new place to live."

The house hasn't been condemned, according to Susan Mellott, Orange County's building official.

"The building code only lets us get involved if it posed a threat to the public," Mellott explained.

Because the owner has boarded up the house, she can't do anything, she said.

The house's owner, Edward Tostanoski Jr. of Chapel Hill, said he it will "probably be fixed in 2008."

"People are happier I haven't put a big McMansion on it," he said.

Asked why he hasn't done anything with the property for four years, he said: "I've had a number of people inquire about purchasing it, and I've given them time to check out their options. They either don't call back or say they don't want it."

There have been no problems with homeless people living there, he said. He added that if people are interested in the 1.58-acre property, he is interested in selling it. The lot has a tax value of about $104,000, according to county land records.