By Jisz Garrett, KINY:
One resident sustained a laceration to their hand and was treated on site. Two firefighters also sustained minor injuries and were released on site as well.
The structure involved was a rental unit with two separate rental units. The building construction made extinguishing the fire extremely difficult as there were multiple void spaces.
Capital City Fire Rescue said the structure is a total loss as it sustained fire, smoke and water damage throughout. The tenants were able to salvage many priceless antiques and family heirlooms.
The investigation has determined that the fire started on the second floor where heavy damage occurred and moderate fire damage on the third floor. The actual cause is undetermined at this time as the investigation is ongoing.
At 5:30 p.m. the fire department was on the scene of a structure fire on Pederson Street near Engineers Cutoff Road.
Chief Travis Mead was in command.
Chief Mead gave a detailed recap of last night’s firefighting.
“At about 5:30 pm yesterday we were toned out to a house fire, residential structure fire on Pederson. We responded there and on arrival, we encountered a home three-story residential home that had had a fire on what we call the Charlie Delta corner. The fire had already vetted out one of the exterior windows and was making its way up the site at home. We had at least two fire engines, multiple ambulances, and multiple volunteer staff responding to this location. The way that the road is set up, there’s a long dirt road that has a hydrant across Engineers Cut Off and there’s another hydrant down the road aways. And so access, getting all that apparatus and a water supply in there was a little bit challenging, I had to definitely coordinate on how we did that. And to be able to leave access for apparatus to get in. Crews encountered it, we started fighting fire. I arrived about a minute behind the first arriving engine. And I assumed command. And we made an attempt to the Charlie side on the second floor to fight fire, actively venting fire out of the windows and door. Additional crews showed up, I was able to assign another team to go to the third floor. There’s more than one family living in this structure, the second floor was an apartment and the third floor was a living space as well. So a second team went to the third to try and make an interior attack through that way. Due to some reports of structural concerns, I declared a defensive operation which means I pulled everyone out of the structure. And we fought fire from a defensive position, which essentially means exterior locations. When we did that, that made it challenging to be able to access all areas of this fire.”
Read the full story here.