Saturday morning the Fire Department was called to the report of smoke coming from an electrical appliance in the basement of a residence. Before he even arrived, Assistant Fire Chief Rick Hammerschmidt could see smoke billowing from the neighborhood. This was substantially more than a smoking appliance.
Sometimes those initial reports can be misleading, clearly this fire had gotten a good head start before it was discovered by the occupants of the house. Good fortune was in play and everyone, including pets, was out of the home before this fire mushroomed into the blaze it quickly became.
While the house is not a total loss, at least part of it will be salvaged, the destruction of personal items was almost complete. Fire, smoke and water damage all take a large toll on personal property. Total loss on this fire is estimated to be around $350,000, eclipsing last year’s entire fire loss total of $249,000. Although the exact cause is still under investigation it appears to be accidental in nature.
I hope the next eleven months are a lot less eventful and we can have another low fire loss year. Below is a picture taken shortly after the first trucks arrived. As you can see there is a lot of smoke and steam emitting from virtually every opening of the home.



