Fire damages Glenwood City home

GLENWOOD CITY — For the second time in six weeks, fire has damaged or destroyed a home in the heart of Glenwood City.

The Glenwood City Fire Department and EMS were dispatched to the one hundred block of Pine Street around 10:30 p.m. Sunday, February 14 after the occupants of the house called 9-1-1 to report that heavy smoke was filling the dwelling.

Firefighters arrived on scene within minutes to find the home filling and quickly determined that the smoke was coming from the southwest corner of the home at 119 Pine Street.

“There was a fire inside the wall of the bathroom area in the rear of the home,” said Glenwood City fire chief Greg Holden Monday afternoon.

The chief said that initially there were no flames visible but once firefighters located a heat source using the department’s thermal imaging camera and opened up the area to access it, flames did erupt. Fire personnel were quickly able to douse the flames which had originated in an outside wall of the home’s first-floor bathroom.

“They (the home’s occupants) smelled smoke and got everyone outside and called 9-1-1,” said Chief Holden.

The residence is owned by Larry Yaden according to Holden but was being rented to Russell Donaghue and his family.

Holden reported that Donaghue, his wife, their two children and the family dog escaped without injury.

Red Cross was notified, said Holden, and was to meet with the family sometime Monday to assess their needs.

The fire, which was contained to the bathroom area, caused an estimated $8,000 to $10,000 damage said Holden. There was also extensive smoke damage throughout the house.

Holden stated that the preliminary investigation of scene seems to indicated that the cause of the fire may be electrical in nature.

The fire department was on scene for about an hour and a half.

Back on January 3, Glenwood City firefighters along with assistance from Boyceville and United Fire of Baldwin battled a blazed that destroyed the Oak Street home of Dinah Harshman.