Firemen save home from windy Thursday afternoon blaze

By Linda Trest, Staff Writer
Posted 4/15/20

A passerby noticed smoke coming from a home in the 3000 block of Tegeler Road last Thursday, April   9. They stopped to notify the lone occupant of the single-story home, a 12-year-old boy.

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Firemen save home from windy Thursday afternoon blaze

Posted

A passerby noticed smoke coming from a home in the 3000 block of Tegeler Road last Thursday, April  9. They stopped to notify the lone occupant of the single-story home, a 12-year-old boy.

The boy called 911 and the Gerald-Rosebud Fire Department arrived on scene just before 3 p.m.

The first alarm call automatically sends out all of the local department’s tankers and pumpers. It also calls out a pumper-—and sometimes a tanker—from the nearest neighboring district, in this case the Beaufort-Leslie Fire Department. 

While en route, Chief Warren Weiss also requested additional help due to 30 mile per hour winds with gusts. Both the Owensville and New Haven-Berger departments responded.

Heavy smoke was coming from the attic and a bedroom window when the fire crew arrived. Weiss says firemen attacked the fire from the inside and were successful in squelching the blaze.

Battalion Chief Jordan Lottman said the fire was contained to that portion of the structure which had been added on at one point to the original portion of the home. Lottmann said an aggressive attack stopped the fire’s spread into the original portion of the residence.

There is a solid wall between the two portions of the residence, noted Lottmann. “Fire was contained to the addition,” he said.

There was extensive charring on the roof trusses extending 8 to 10 feet from the end wall into the room, he said.

“Once again, they did a great job,” Weiss noted of his department.

The homeowners arrived on scene while the firemen were working.

Weiss says the leaf fire near the house probably reignited  with the windy conditions. The fire then traveled up an exterior wall and into the attic.

The family dog was safely retrieved from the home.

There were no injuries and the firemen cleared the scene at 3:58 p.m.

Reporting on this story was also provided by Dave Marner.