Electrical malfunction to blame for fire on East South Street

An East South Street home sustained damages to the attic area and ceilings Monday evening when a ventilation fan caught fire. No one was at home when the fire broke out, but firefighters were able to pull a dog, uninjured, from the burning home.

Marc Bayless, of Hillsboro Fire and Rescue, said the station was dispatched at 5:33 p.m. Monday to the 300 block of East South Street to the report of smoke coming from a structure.

"Upon arrival, we noticed flames and smoke coming from the east side of the structure, in the attic area," Bayless said. "We did have automatic mutual aid coming, but with the reduction in manpower, we took a defensive stance until additional support arrived on scene so we could go on the defensive stance."

Bayless said that means, "we just had to do it from the outside. We were blowing water through the vent hole in the attic, which is not something that we would normally do.

"We had to evaluate the risk verses reward," Bayless said. "Nobody was home at the time. We did go in to the first floor of the structure and found a dog. We got him out, but there were no humans at home. Once we got an additional unit on scene - it was actually one of our guys (who had been laid off) who now volunteers with Lynchburg - he able to jump on the pump panel which allowed us to have two in and two out, which is stipulated by the National Fire Protection Agency. That allowed us to go in and attack the fire from the inside out."

The fire was contained in approximately 25 minutes he said.

HFR received mutual aid to the scene from the Lynchburg Area Fire and Ambulance District and the Marshall Volunteer Fire Department. The Highland County North Joint Fire and Ambulance District in Leesburg was directed to the Hillsboro fire station for station coverage.

Bayless said the cause of the fire was a vent fan in the attic "that had some kind of electrical malfunction."

"We pretty much contained it to the attic, but had to pull some ceilings down downstairs," Bayless said. "The attic was half finished and half unfinished and had no true access to get to the area of the fire's origin, so we had to pull down some ceilings to get to it. But the majority of the personal property was saved with minimal damage."

No injuries were reported, and crews were able to clear the scene at approximately 7:13 p.m.

"There were no injuries to the canine, either," Bayless said.

The home had working smoke detectors, Bayless said, "which is a plus."