Three suffer minor smoke inhalation in Sylvania house fire

11/13/2008

Three people, including two children, suffered minor smoke inhalation early Thursday in what started as a garage fire in their Sylvania house, authorities said.

They did not seek medical treatment, said Sylvania Township Deputy Fire Chief Tom Eisel.

A woman, her 12-year-old daughter, and a 10-year-old son escaped unhurt from the house at 7054 Altara Dr. before fire crews arrived at 2:26 a.m. and found heavy fire in the attached garage, Chief Eisel said.

The girl smelled something and woke everybody up, he said. The mom got up, started looking around and didn t see anything. She tried the garage door. It felt warm. She looked inside and saw the fire.

Firefighters brought the blaze under control in about an hour but not before the blaze heavily damaged the garage and spread to the attic, the family room, and the kitchen of the single-story wood frame house, Chief Eisel said.

It took them that long because they first had to locate and shut off the natural gas line to a leaky gas meter in the garage, which was feeding the fire, he said.

It was unclear whether the fire had started from that gas leak. But it was determined that the blaze had indeed started in the garage, near a natural gas furnace, the chief said.

The damage estimate was not available Thursday morning. The family spent the night at a neighbor s house, he said.

The Lucas County Auditor s Web site lists the owner of the house, which was built in 1956, as Willis Jones.