2 Early Morning Fires Keeps the FDNM Busy this Halloween weekend
Photo by: Jamie Benson
The first late Saturday, early Sunday call of the fire department came to the New Martinsville Police Department from 570 Urban St. at 11:33 PM Saturday. Residents reported an electrical fire in the home. Arriving fire departments units found a portable space heater, that was apparently being used as a primary heating source in the home, which had a burned plug end. Fire fighters checked the wall of the home for any extension into the walls of the home, disconnected the wall outlet and removed the damaged space heater, no extinguishment was required. The fire department responded to this call with Engines 202, 207 and 209 with 9-personnel and were assisted at the scene by the NMPD. All personnel left the scene of this call at 12:08 AM.
The second call was received by Wetzel Co. 911 dispatchers at 3:27 AM from a neighbor who, stated that she could see the fire in the kitchen area and that area appeared to be fully involved in fire.NMVFD Engines 202 and 207 arrived on the scene simultaneously and encountered heavy fire in the living area and kitchen of the lower level of the home. Fire crews advanced an attack line into the fire area and were able to bring the fire under control in 20-minutes.
The home had extreme heat and smoke levels on both of the fire floor and the second floor, We were very concerned about the high heat and smoke levels and the possibility of the fire "flashin-over" so we had to be quite aggressive in our ventilation efforts of the structure, to keep that from happening, Couch said.
Damages to the Apple St. home were estimated to be $30,000 and the initial cause of the fire was being listed as "Un-Attended Cooking". There were no injuries. Engines 202, 207 and 209 along with Operations 201, and a total of 12 personnel responded to the call, assisted by Paden City Engine 5 Rescue 6 Communications 7 with several fire fighters.
New Martinsville Fire Fighters were also assisted at the scene by Wetzel Co. EMS Personnel, City Electric, and the New Martinsville Water & Sewer Department
The NMVFD responded to at least 4-other calls during this past weekend, keeping the volunteers quite busy.
