Ohio Firefighter Spots Blaze on Way to False Alarm

A sharp-sighted firefighter spotted a house fire on Monday morning while en route to another fire call, Madison Fire Chief Gene Lutz said.

The Madison Township firefighters were driving to a mutual aid call in Perry Township at 7 a.m. when the shift commander noticed smoke coming from a house at 2408 Hubbard Road.

"Our crews were going to Perry for a call at the Lake County Humane Society," Lutz said. "The lieutenant was passing by and saw cars stopped around the house. He took a look around and noticed house was on fire."

The Madison Township Fire Station is also located on Hubbard Road.

The call to LCHS turned out to be a false alarm, Lutz said, but the house fire on Hubbard Road was very real, Lutz said.

Fire crews from Perry Township, Leroy Township, Geneva and Harpersfield Township, provided mutual aid at the scene.

"Everyone was on their way to Perry and then turned around and came to the fire on Hubbard," he said.

The house was unoccupied with the utilities disconnected and no one was injured at the scene, Lutz said.

"The gas was shut off, but the electric was still on and the homeowners were using electric heaters to keep the pipes from freezing," he said. "Electric heaters are generally not a good way to heat a house when no one is home."

Lutz said while arson is not suspected, the cause of the fire is still under investigation, though he believes the structure will be considered a, "total loss."

"We even had to do some demolition of the structure to extinguish smolder. I would consider this house a total loss at this point," Lutz said.

Copyright 2012 - Star Beacon, Ashtabula, Ohio

McClatchy-Tribune News Service