The Murrayville and Woodson Fire Departments received a call of a residential fire on Pink Alley near the Murrayville Elementary School at approximately 4:30 Tuesday afternoon.
Murrayville Fire Chief Cody Kitselman says smoke was showing from the rear of the house when crews first arrived. “The kitchen was on fire and when we got on scene we didn’t have any visible flames at the time. There was heavy smoke coming out of the back side of the house where the kitchen was located.
When we got everything set up we started having flames showing out of the west side of the house where the fire originated. We got two supply lines pulled off and that controlled, and then we made entry with South Jacksonville and did an interior breakdown. The only parts of the house that were flame damaged would be the kitchen and the dining room. The remainder of the house had pretty heavy smoke damage.”
An estimate of the damages was not available as of press time, however, Kitselman says due to the extent of the water and smoke damage throughout the two-story home, he believes it to be “close to a total loss.” He says through, structurally it was still in pretty good shape.
Kitselman says no foul play is suspected in the incident and it seems the cause was accidental in nature. “The owner said they were baking cookies and went outside and when he came back around the side of the house the stove was on fire, and that’s exactly where the hottest point in the structure was there at the stove. We don’t see any foul play involved.”
The Woodson Fire Department responded as automatic mutual aid. Kitselman says once he saw the amount of smoke coming out of the structure, he called for South Jacksonville to also provide mutual aid.
Crews were on scene for approximately two and a half hours. Kitselman says no one was injured in the blaze, including the owner’s cat which was found in the back of a closet in the home and returned to the owners.