A person who entered a burning vacant two-story home used for storage was taken to Salem Township Hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation on Thursday morning.
Sandoval Fire Chief Scott Toler says the man, whose name was not immediately available, had gone into the building at 5640 Seven Hills Road in rural Odin to retrieve a dog.
Toler says heavy fire was showing from the two back rooms of the residence upon their arrival. While those two rooms were gutted, firemen stopped the fire before it moved towards the front of the home. However, the entire structure received smoke and heat damage.
The owner of the home, Shela Carpenter, was woke by a neighbor who told her the building was on fire around 5:30 Thursday morning. Sandoval called Odin and Patoka to the scene for mutual aid, while the Centralia Fire Protection District responded to cover the Sandoval fire station in the event of another fire.
The cause of the fire has not been determined.
