Emergency officials received several calls reporting 20- to 30-foot flames coming from a house at 252 Johnson Road Wednesday afternoon. Firefighters identified the situation as a brush fire and called for a second alarm response before confining some 30-year-old juniper bushes that surrounded and threatened the home.
The shrubbery was about 15 feet from the home, but continued growth could have ignited a row of junipers about four feet from the house, Glenn Johnson, Pullman Fire Department public information officer, said in a press release.
Incident commander Paul Heebink said crews were able to extinguish the blaze before it got closer to the house. Investigators determined the fire began when the owner of the home attempted to kill some rodents by spraying a product called Rodex -- a mixture of propane and oxygen -- down some rodent holes.
"During the summer, the product will normally collapse the rodent holes," Heebink said. "But in the winter, the holes are frozen, and when the product was fired in the hole, it ignited the bushes."
Johnson reminded homeowners to keep plenty of space between their home and vegetation in their yard in order to prevent house fires.
"Juniper bushes, especially old and dry ones, are highly flammable and many homes nationwide, and some in Pullman, have been damaged or destroyed by fire that originated in junipers," he said.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
