Salem Fire Protection District officials with help from three other departments fought a fire Wednesday morning that destroyed a garage and heavily damaged an attached double wide mobile home.
Chief Dave Duncan says the fire was at the Gary and Kathy Benjamin home at 2581 Selmaville Road at Watson Lane southwest of Salem. He reports a neighbor who walked his grandchildren to the school bus spotted the smoke coming from the garage. Duncan says he got the Benjamin’s out of bed and safely outside before the fire had spread to the home. However, initially, firemen at the scene had information the two may still have been inside which fortunately turned out not to be the case.
Duncan says while they were able to knock down the fire after it had burned just one room at the end of the home, there was extensive heat and smoke damage. He doubts it can be repaired.
Fire Marshal Bill Fulton believes the fire started from a heat lamp left on in the garage for some young chickens.
Three of the family pets were killed in the fire, but several others were able to get out alive.
Odin and Kell Firemen provided mutual aid on the scene, while Kinmundy -Alma Firemen stood by at the Salem Fire Station in the event of another fire.
Firemen received the call at 7:36 and were on the scene for about two hours.
