An older home in the Martin’s Prairie area east of Roodhouse was completely destroyed after a fire yesterday around midday.
Roodhouse Fire Chief Terry Hopkins says his department received a page for a structure fire at around 11:15 Tuesday morning for a home located at 748 NE 1200th Street, approximately 8 miles east of Roodhouse. Hopkins says he could see the smoke from his front porch on the east side of Roodhouse before he made it to the firehouse to get trucks en route.
Upon arrival, Hopkins says the nearly century-old two story structure had pretty much been reduced to a pile of boards and had mostly caved in. It was completely engulfed in flame. Hopkins says that yesterday’s strong winds aided in the structure going up so quickly.
Hopkins says his department received mutual aid from the entire county on the call: “White Hall was paged out with us, and they came. Then, we called Greenfield to bring water, and Carrollton to bring water. We were pretty close to about 8 miles outside of Roodhouse, which would have been our nearest hydrants.”
Hopkins says due to the nature of the fire, the origins and the cause of the fire are simply unknown and remain under investigation. The homeowners were not at home at the time of the fire. Firefighters remained on scene until approximately 3:30PM.