Multiple fire departments responded to the scene of a fire at a multi-story house Monday afternoon in western Wayne County.
Firefighters from Hoskins, Winside and Carroll responded to a house fire north of Hoskins on Dec. 1.
Hoskins-Woodland Park Fire Chief Adam Behmer said that at approximately 2 p.m. crews were paged for a fire coming from an electrical fireplace that got out of control and spread to a wall in the living room.
Behmer said the home’s sole occupant, Marcy Schellenberg, safely exited the house with her dog before firefighters arrived. Schellenberg initially attempted to extinguish the fire on her own, but it quickly got out of control.
It took crews around 30 minutes to get the fire under control and another hour and a half to overhaul the structure, Behmer said. Around 30 firefighters, four tankers, two pumpers, a rescue unit and a cascade system (used to fill self-contained breathing apparatus cylinders) went to the scene.
The fire chief said the main floor of the home sustained an estimated $120,000 to $150,000 in damage along with smoke damage throughout the residence. The house is uninhabitable for the foreseeable future, Behmer said.
An investigator with the state fire marshal’s office and some first responders were at the scene until around 6:30 p.m. No emergency personnel were injured responding to the fire.
Firefighters had cold weather to contend with, as the air temperature at 3 p.m. was 22 degrees, with the wind chill making it feel like 12 degrees. Behmer said the cold can present additional challenges for firefighters in that equipment such as air valves in air packs can freeze up.
The Wayne County Sheriff's Office assisted at the scene.
