A fire that destroyed a more than 8,000-square-foot home on Lake Hamilton on Monday appeared to start in the attic, and took 32 firefighters from four different departments over six hours to fully extinguish, the 70 West Fire Department fire chief said Tuesday.
The possibility of the fire at 654 Springwood Road spreading to nearby homes on Springwood Loop led to the evacuation of two homes, 70 West Fire Chief Autumn Carlisle said, and several other people in the area were unable to leave or get to their homes due to the road being closed.
Volunteer firefighters were dispatched just before 3 p.m. to the unoccupied residence after a passerby in a boat reported a structure fire. Carlisle said that when firefighters arrived, the attic over the center of the structure was fully engulfed with flames through the roof. Heavy black smoke was visible from as far away as the Airport Road bridge over Lake Hamilton.
Carlisle said she believes the fire originated in the attic area, but the exact cause of the fire was still unknown Tuesday.
"It was a large open floor plan with a lot of wood, heavy timbers, and some masonry. It had seven heat (and) air units and a commercial gas supply line to it," Carlisle said in a news release, which said the structure, around 8,690 square feet, was under construction and "had been for several years."
The 70 West Fire Department responded with three engines and a brush truck. Mutual aid was requested and four firefighters responded from Piney Fire Department, two from Mountain Pine Fire Department, and three firefighters from Lake Hamilton Fire Department along with a tanker and a fireboat.
"There were several trees that grew through the roof around the structure," and the "heavy fire load made the fire difficult for firefighters to fight," the release said.
After it became obvious the original structure was a total loss, firefighters worked to prevent the fire from spreading, hosing down trees and the house next door as a precaution.
"There were reports from the public that there were two homes that burned. There was only one very large residence that burned, a neighboring home sustained very minor heat damage to some siding and some landscaping," the release said.
Several explosions could also be heard at the scene as the fire spread. Carlisle said Tuesday that the initial explosions were possibly from ammunition and the larger secondary explosions were from several small camp stove propane cylinders. Firefighters located various sizes of portable propane cylinders after the fire, some of which had exploded.
LifeNet responded to the scene to provide assistance with checking the firefighters for heat-related illness and injuries throughout the incident. CenterPoint Energy and Entergy both responded to assist with shutting down gas and electric utilities to the structure as well as Hot Springs Municipal Utilities Water Department.
"A big thank you to the patient community members who were inconvenienced with not being able to get into their homes or out of the neighborhood for a time this afternoon while the road was closed down (and) to those who opened their homes for firefighters momentarily this afternoon," Carlisle said.
"This is the third large fire this week for our department and our community support has been tremendous. We have been blessed with cooler temperatures but when working these large fires the scenes are hot and our firefighters are already tired and somewhat dehydrated from all of the activity. We have been encouraging them to drink lots of water and continue to hydrate long after leaving the fire ground," Carlisle said.
Local on 08/08/2018