Three rowhouses were destroyed and another was severely damaged yesterday in a three-alarm blaze in East Baltimore.

The fire was reported shortly before 6 p.m. inside a vacant rowhouse in the 2200 block of Orleans St., and spread to three neighboring structures - at least two of them also vacant.

Carol Farmer, a resident since 1997, said she has called police several times about the three vacant rowhouses in the middle of her block, which she said had been used by squatters and for drug dealing.

No one was injured, and the cause of the blaze remained under investigation, city Fire Department officials said.