House fire in northern Boone County started in electrical outlet Thursday night
Haley Swaino
BOONE COUNTY, Mo. (KMIZ)
A house fire in northern Boone County Thursday night started in an electric outlet on the back side of the house, Boone County Fire Protection District Assistant Chief Gale Blomenkamp told ABC 17 News in an email Saturday.
BCFPD was called to a home in the 14300 block of North Old Number 7, just south of Highway 124, between Harrisburg and Hallsville, at 9:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Around 10:40 p.m., the fire appeared to increase in size. Around 40 firefighters responded to the fire, and there were no casualties, according to Blomenkamp.
Fire crews left the scene around 5:15 a.m. Friday, after battling the flames throughout the night. Firefighters returned just before 6 a.m. to find more smoke coming from the home.
“We did not go back out today,” Blomenkamp said in an email Saturday. “Investigators were there yesterday [Friday] and determined the fire started in a GFCI [ground fault circuit interrupters] electric outlet on the back side of the house.”
Crews battled hotspots for several hours before leaving the scene, according to previous reporting.
Blomenkamp spoke to ABC 17 News on the scene, explaining how difficult it was to put out the house fire due to limited water supply from a lack of hydrants in the area. He said crews were able to get their water trucks refilled and back to the scene in order to maintain operations.
Blomenkamp further explained the difficulty of fighting this house fire on Friday, expressing that it was similar to dealing with four separate structure fires.
“A lot of separate hidden attic spaces and fake dormers that are on the front of the structure. Those are very difficult to extinguish,” Bloemnkamp said. “The roof was on fire by the time we really arrived and got to work. So when the roof’s on fire, it’s hard to put that out from below.”
An ABC 17 News reporter on scene when the firefighters returned saw eight Boone County Fire Protection District trucks, one Columbia Fire Department ladder truck and a Boone Health EMS ambulance.
Flames were still coming out of the home at 10:30 p.m. An ABC 17 News photographer saw three firetrucks, seven service vehicles and an EMS vehicle.