Firefighters battle flames, heat on Fourth of July

Poplar Bluff firefighters responded to a structure fire Thursday afternoon after a neighbor heard a person yell their house was on fire.

After being dispatched at 3:15 p.m., firefighters arrived to find flames coming out of a house at 424 Homer Avenue.

“It took a couple of hours to knock it down, it got up there in the attic,” Chief Ralph Stucker said.

“At the front of the house we could get through the ceiling but not into the (attic).”

Firefighters knocked out the gable vents to spray water into the attic and later cut a hole in the roof before dropping in a line that spins water in every direction.

“It’s hard to put people on the steep incline because we don’t know how much the roof is compromised,” Stucker said.

The home is located on a one-way street on the north side of Holy Cross Episcopal Church, located on Main Street.

An additional 10 firefighters were called in to assist, Stucker said.

“If we hadn’t gotten the 10 guys back in I don’t know if we would have stopped it because it was, with the heat and everything, it zapped everybody that we had,” Stucker said.

None of the firefighters received treatment other than water, Stucker said, and no injuries were reported.

Poplar Bluff Police and an emergency medical crew were on scene along with Municipal Utilities and Spire Gas.