Structure lost in Plains blaze

PLAINS – Smoke billowed into the sky above Plains, Tuesday morning, when a fire consumed a residence on River Road East.

According to Marlin Cooper, of the Plains-Paradise Rural Fire Department, the most likely cause of the fire was a wood-burning stove. He said there was no real way to verify this, though, and the cause may be investigated further.

“From talking to the first person on scene, he saw the flames coming out [and] that was probable cause,” Cooper said.

Plains-Paradise Rural Fire responded with one engine and a tender while Plains City Fire responded with an engine as mutual aid; in all, there were approximately 10 firefighters on scene. Cooper said the crews fought the fire for five hours Tuesday.

The building was declared a complete loss. The front deck of the building was black with smoke and burns with cracks in the walls. Cooper noted modular homes are not easy to fight fires in and crews need to do most of their work from the outside.

Wednesday morning, a crew responded to the fire again to put out a flare up in the attic space. Cooper recalled they were not able to get up there at the time to douse those hot spots and were expecting there might be more activity.

“We kinda figured it was going to start back up,” he said. “We’re kinda glad it didn’t start up last night.”

The home’s occupant was evacuated by Plains Ambulance with burns of unknown severity. Cooper said it was possible she was trying to fight the fire herself, but could not confirm it at the time of press.

He also noted they got good cooperation from the city and ambulance who stayed to help most of the day.