Salem firemen with mutual aid assistance from Odin fight a fire at 907 North Shelby early Tuesday morning that spread to the house next door.
One home was destroyed and another moderately damaged in the 900 block of North Shelby in Salem early Tuesday morning.
Salem Fire Protection District Chief Dave Duncan says the fire had spread out of control before their arrival.
“When I arrived on the scene there were two structures involved. The original structure at 907 North Shelby was fully involved and the radiant heat from that structure had started a fire next door at 905. The 907 address was a total loss. The fire next door at 905 we were able to get a quick knock on it and it’s repairable.”
The vacant home is owned by Perry Johnson of Salem. It was full of stored items, which Duncan said fueled the fire. The fire spread to the Gary Byers home. They were all able to get out safely. Duncan says there was significant damage to the roof of the Byers home and the radiant heat was hot enough to break a window and damage the side of the home closest to the vacant home. Heat and smoke damage was reported throughout.
Duncan says getting adequate water to fight the fire was an issue.
“That portion of town is an older portion of town and the water lines in that area are small to begin with and we were definitely hampered by lack of water for the fire fighting effort.”
Duncan says once Odin arrived for mutual aid they were able to find a hydrant that provided greater water pressure. They resorted to using water out of one of the pumper trucks until then.
Kell Firemen were also called for mutual aid and stood by at the Salem Fire Station.
The State Fire Marshal’s office was called in to try and determine the cause of the fire.
The first fire alarm came in at 1:44 Tuesday morning. Firemen were called back for a rekindle shortly after five Tuesday morning.
