Joe Szydlowski
The Record Searchlight
Two get out of burning home Heavy flames lead to second alarm
REDDING, Calif. — A Redding woman’s hair was singed Tuesday night as she escaped from her burning house in the 800 block of Lakeview Drive.
Heavy flames were visible through a window of the house when Redding firefighters arrived at 6:47 p.m., and they immediately called a second alarm for more help.
Sixteen firefighters went to the house, where the fire was burning in one front room, said Steve Reilly, a battalion chief with the Redding Fire Department.
Neighbor Madie Hoffmann, 14, said she was talking to her friend on the phone when she saw flames “bursting out the window” of the house around 6:40 p.m. She called 911.
The couple who lived in the one-story, white house ran outside as soon as they realized there was a fire, one of them said, who gave his name as William Oliver.
Reilly said one woman suffered singed hair but declined medical treatment. The woman, who also lived in the home, declined to give her name. Another neighbor, April Preston, 39, said many of the houses in the neighborhood between Eighth and Ninth streets were built in the 1930s and have had electrical problems.
Reilly said investigators were still looking into the fire’s cause.
When firefighters arrived, they found one room engulfed in flames and smoke throughout the house, Reilly said. Firefighters put a hole in the roof to allow the fire to vent, but that caused a partial roof collapse, he said. Hoffman said it took about 30 minutes for the flames to finally subside.
Preston said every time she thought firefighters had quenched the flames, they seemed to reappear.
Thirty minutes later, dispatchers were still calling for off-duty firefighters and other jurisdictions to fill in at Redding’s emptied fire stations.
Reilly said he was unsure about the monetary amount of the fire damage, but said there was smoke damage throughout the house and fire damage in one room.
Copyright 2012 Record Searchlight
All Rights Reserved