Fire causes significant smoke, heat damage to Patton Township home

A house at 625 Wiltshire Drive sustained “significant” damage in a Sunday morning blaze.

According to Alpha Fire Company Assistant Fire Chief Dennis Harris, the homeowner put ashes from a wood-burning fireplace into a garbage can and left the residence for about an hour Sunday morning before returning to see an active fire.

Upon the fire department’s arrival, there was smoke coming out of the building and a fire was discovered in the kitchen area. The fire was contained to the kitchen area, but there is smoke and heat damage throughout the living floor and the upper floor. There is also water damage to the kitchen and lesser water damage to the floor below the kitchen, Harris said.

No injuries were reported to the homeowner or the firefighters. The homeowner, who lived in the house by herself, expects to live with her family for the time being, according to Harris.

The fire was controlled when the firefighters used an interior attack, which meant the firefighters took a hose into the building and extinguished the fire with water before using the hose to ventilate the smoke out of the building until fans could be brought in.

The snow-covered roads had a limited impact, if any at all, on the department’s response time, according to Harris. Centre LifeLink EMS responded to the scene as well.

Sunday was the second consecutive day that Alpha Fire Company responded to a house fire in Patton Township. A family of four was displaced after a second-alarm fire on Saturday morning.

This story was originally published February 4, 2018 at 1:28 PM with the headline "Fire causes significant smoke, heat damage to Patton Township home."