Fire department recalled twice to vacant house blaze

Fire struck twice Tuesday at 910 N. D St., which ignited an investigation by the Missouri State fire marshal.

According to Battalion Chief Jeffrey Hale, three stations responded at 3:45 p.m. in three apparatus to a vacant house fully involved in fire. Attack lines were pulled off a truck to extinguish the fire.

“We had laid a supply line to the hydrant at D and Riverview,” Hale said. “Soon after we started putting water on the fire, the south side of the structure collapsed and the roof partially collapsed.”

Due to the difficulty reaching the structure because of overgrown trees and brush, Hale decided to use the ladder on the truck.

An off-duty crew returned to work to be able to respond to any additional calls since the three crews on duty were fighting the fire.

The nine personnel at the scene were Hale, firefighters Tyler Daggett, Dustin Graves and Tyler Gutterman, Lt. Justin Maddock, Lt. Jonathan Miller, Capt. Justin Moyers, Lt. Tavis Taylor and firefighter Jamie Watson.

The 1,000-square-foot one story building was vacant and unsecured. While the heat source was undetermined, authorities think the fire may have been intentional.

The fire crews spent two hours and 10 minutes at the scene the first time and used 10,000 gallons of water.

The second alarm sounded at 11:43 p.m. to reports the structure fire had rekindled.

While each of the stations responded, Hale canceled stations 2 and 3 when he arrived and found a spot in a bedroom smoldering and fire in a pile of wood that was removed from the structure.

The crew from Station 1 used the booster line and 300 gallons of water to extinguish the fire before clearing the scene more than an half hour later.

The building is owned by John Walker.

Butler County EMS and Municipal Utilities responded to the first fire.