Ind. Workers Start Fireplace Fire, Burn House
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Dec. 06--Four construction workers who started a fire in a fireplace to keep warm while remodeling a house escaped without injury Tuesday afternoon when a chimney flue fire apparently broke out.
Bloomington firefighters were called to a fire at 711 Wylie St., just south of IU Health Bloomington Hospital, about 12:15 p.m. Flames were showing from the one-story house's roof when medics from the nearby hospital first arrived.
The house is the process of being remodeled. "That poor old thing needed attention," construction worker Dan Loomis said at the scene.
As firefighters peeled back sections of the roof and ventilated the house, he called its address his "unlucky number," adding that he's had "lots of headaches on this job."
The homeowner was not there when the fire started.
Two construction workers were underneath the home in a crawl space, replacing water lines. Two others were inside the house working on framing and wiring, Loomis said. They had started a fire in the fireplace to keep warm, then the house filled with smoke.
It took firefighters about five minutes to extinguish the blaze, after a check to make sure no one was still in the home, according to battalion chief Rick Petermichel.
Bloomington police assisted at the scene, as did crews from Duke Energy and Vectren.