Garage lost but house saved in fire
Jun. 5—Firefighters managed to save a home from fire on Monday afternoon. Washington Township, Washington and Veale Township fire departments were called out to a report of a fire in a garage about two miles south of Washington on State Road 57 about 3:25 p.m. Neighbors called 911 reporting smoke coming from the garage.
"It was a single-family dwelling with an attached garage. It came in as a garage fire," said Washington Township Volunteer Fire Department Chief David Gray. "I called for the city fire department and Veale Township for mutual aid right away."
When firefighters got to the scene, they were automatically facing a fire in the garage.
"When we arrived, there were flames breaking through the south side wall of the garage," said Gray. "We got water on it quickly and managed to save the house. The only damage to the house was smoke damage. The fire did not get into the dwelling. That was a big plus. Saving the living quarters was a big deal."
Given the situation when firefighters arrived, the result is being described as the best possible outcome.
"We were worried when we saw the fire going in the garage that it might jump to the house and get away from us," said Gray. "We managed to get the water on it really quickly and that stopped the fire."
It may have limited the damage, but the property at 2337 S. SR 57 and occupied by the Jeffery Brown family wound up with considerable damage.
"The garage was filled with equipment," said Gray. "There was a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, lots of tools."
Gray says no one was home when the fire broke out. Neighbors, who first noticed the fire went inside the house and rescued the family pets.
"There was also some heat damage to the neighbor's house, vinyl siding was damaged," he said. "That was brand new siding that they had just put on last week because of storm damage."
The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Authorities have called in an investigator with the State Fire Marshal, but foul play is not suspected.
"The dollar value of the contents that were damaged was pretty high based on what we could see," said Gray. "We'd like to know what caused it. There's nothing suspicious. A lot of time we call in the state then damages begin to exceed $50,000 just to narrow it down."
The fire resulted in no injuries. By the time it was put out there were three water tankers on scene and 18 firefighters, assisted by deputies from the Daviess County Sheriff's Department, members of the Washington Police Department and Daviess Community Hospital Ambulance Service.
