Poplar Bluff Firefighters made rapid work of putting out a fire Thursday afternoon at 306 Gum St., possibly caused by squatters.
Fire crews begin arriving at the scene at 5:19 p.m. and had the fire out at 5:52 p.m.
According to acting battalion chief, Capt. Tobby Tuggle, light smoke was coming from the eaves of the vacant house when crews arrived.
As firefighters entered the structure, they found fire inside the front door in the living area. It was quickly extinguished, Tuggle reported. No one was found inside the house but the crew located a blanket or sleeping bag and two holes burned in the floor. It appeared some discarded smoking materials were left behind by possible squatters. It did not appear the fire was set intentionally.
The unsecured residential property had no electricity or gas service, Tuggle said.
Tuggle spoke with the state fire marshal, who decided it wasn’t necessary for him to investigate.
Firefighters used 200 gallons of water to put out the fire and used the thermal imaging camera to make certain all the hot spots were extinguished from the unsecured property owned by David Huff.
Crew members on the scene were Austin Armes, Chad Bell, Joshua Buhler, Kenneth Felts, Andew Fox, Lt. Jonathan Miller, Tanner Tibbs and Tuggle.