Sanborn, Iowa– A house was damaged in a fire on Saturday, April 14, 2018, in Sanborn.
According to Sanborn Fire Chief Randy Lyman, about 9:35 p.m., the Sanborn Fire Department was called to the report of a fire in the attic at 507 West Fourth Street in Sanborn.
The chief says the fire department saw smoke as they approached the scene.
He says the incident started when the occupants noticed some electrical problems earlier that day. He says the doorbell starting going continuously and a tripped breaker wouldn’t reset. He says ten to fifteen minutes later, they heard a crackling and popping in the attic, and when they checked it out, the attic was full of smoke, so they called 911.
Chief Lyman says firefighters were able to use a thermal imaging camera to find hot spots. They think the fire started near some wires that were near the chimney. He says the occupants had the fireplace going, but firefighters don’t think that was the cause of the fire. He says maybe it was caused by a short in the wires that ran near the chimney.
Lyman says no injuries were reported.
He says when the initial call came in, he requested that Sheldon firefighters be paged to the scene as well, but when they knew what they had, they told Sheldon firefighters that they could turn around.
Chief Lyman reports that there was moderate damage. He says they did need to make a hole in the ceiling to get at the fire. He says some insulation will have to be replaced and some rafters were burned and will need repair. He estimates the damage at five to ten thousand dollars.
He says they used about 30 gallons of water to fight the fire, and the nine firefighters who responded were on scene for about two hours. He says he also returned to the scene later when a law enforcement officer called him and said he could see smoke. Lyman says he put out the hot spot himself without paging the fire department. He says the fire would have been a lot worse had the family not been home at the time.
