3 Toledo fires cause damage totaling $100,000
3/30/2005Toledo firefighters were kept busy yesterday battling three blazes. No one was hurt in any of the fires, but the total property damage was estimated at nearly $100,0000.
Two of the fires occurred within an hour of one another last night - one at an occupied single-family house in West Toledo, and the other at an unoccupied duplex unit in North Toledo. Earlier in the day, a blaze was extinguished at an apartment building in the Old West End.
About 7:40 p.m., Cheyenne Rieger and Renee Behner, occupants of a two-story, wood frame house at 3316 Brock Dr. near Secor Road, smelled rubber and then saw smoke coming from an electric outlet in a second-floor bedroom.
Fire crews arrived at 7:43 p.m., found the blaze in the bedroom wall, and had it under control in about five minutes, by which time it had spread out a window to the attic, which sustained minor damage, Battalion Fire Chief Tony Gregory said.
The cause of the fire was an electrical short in an electrical outlet. Damage from the fire was estimated at about $15,000.
The women were staying with relatives overnight, the chief said.
The North Toledo fire was reported at 8:34 p.m. with an initial report of people trapped inside a burning duplex at 220 Palmer St., near Locust Street. It turned out that no one was trapped, fire officials said.
The fire was deemed suspicious because it appears it started at two locations in the upper unit of the two-story duplex, possibly in the living room and in the kitchen. No one was home at the upper unit, Battalion Fire Chief Mark Klein said.
Fire crews had the blaze under control within about 20 minutes, by which time it had spread throughout the upper unit. Fire damage was estimated at about $50,000, the chief said.
The Red Cross was assisting the occupants of the house with accommodations last night.
About 4:45 a.m. yesterday, discarded smoking materials are believed to have sparked a fire on the third floor of the apartment building at 2130 Scottwood Ave. The fire in the six-unit building began in rubbish piled on the third-floor rear, enclosed stairwell and spread into the attic, according to a fire incident report.
The building, owned by Progressive Housing Developers Inc. of Toledo, sustained about $30,000 damage. Smoke detectors in the building were operating, the report stated.