Nikole Babb
nbabb@cherryroad.com

Around 4:17pm on Saturday, December 7, the El Dorado Fire Department was dispatched to two-story structure fire near Third Ave and Emporia St. Upon arrival at the scene, firefighters observed fire coming from the top of the home, which the homeowners said they thought the fire originated.

As the crew began to work on search and rescue and extinguishing the fire, they had difficulty finding where the fire was coming from. The conditions of the fire worsened and became uncontrollable at one point with fire surging out of the roof vents and inside walls. The fire became so hot that it melted the adhesive that the bricks on the home were attached to, causing bricks to fall off the home.

According to the El Dorado Fire Department, it took a while to fully extinguish the fire with crews leaving the scene around 10pm. Investigators with the Fire Department were able to determine the fire had originated upstairs of the home, where the attic had been turned into a loft. It seemed the fire was started in the immediate area of a furnace unintentionally, but no exact cause identified.

No humans were inside the home at the time of the fire, but one cat and one gecko unfortunately perished. No injuries were reported by the homeowners or occupants.

“As far as furnace safety goes, we recommend having an HVAC professional come and inspect your furnace before lighting them up for the year,” said Fire Chief Joe Haag. “It’s kind of late in the year for that now. You want to make sure you don’t store any combustibles close to them and we also recommend that if your furnace is natural gas fueled that you have a carbon monoxide detector in your home.”