Fire guts home
By GREGG RETTIG
Editor
London Fire Department Lt. Mark Foster credits the quick action of Curtis Young for avoiding any injuries during an early morning fire Sunday.
Fire broke out in a two-family home at 34 N. Walnut St. Young was awaken about 2:30 a.m. Sunday. He realized what was happening, went next door and alerted the residents there.
A fire early Sunday morning destroyed a home at Fourth and Walnut street in London.
Everyone made it out safely.
Young then ran a block-and-a-half to Station 360 and alerted firefighters.
When firefighters arrived on the scene a couple of minutes later, flames already were venting through the roof.
Foster said firefighters entered the structure, made sure no one else was in it and then fell back to fight the blaze, which destroyed the dwelling.
Foster said he believes the source to be electrical, with fire spreading through an interior wall to the roof.
“It’s a balloon-frame home, which means there are no firewalls in it,” Foster said. “We believe the fire was electrical and may have started in a standard crawl space.”
The home did have working smoke detectors, but they did not sound initially, Foster said.
Crews from London, Central Townships and Jefferson Township spent the next couple of hours dousing the flames.
“Both ladder trucks from London and Jefferson were putting 1,000 gallons of water a minutes on it. It still took us a couple of hours to get out all of the hotspots,” Foster said.
Please consider volunteering for the American Red Cross to help future victims of disasters such as this. Through the efforts of volunteers in the community the American Red Cross was able to respond to this fire within hours providing comfort kits, arranging for lodging, financial assistance for immediate needs, and more. Please follow this link to become a volunteer: http://www.redcross.org/oh/columbus/volunteer
Is there any information available regarding how we can help those who liekely lost a great deal? Who are they…what do they need…how can we help?
The Presbyterian Church on Garfield has donation boxes set up for the family in the front half of the home. As for the gentleman in the back half of the home is in the need of everything. He wears size 36×30, XL shirts, and size 10 shoes. He is also in need of all household items as well. If you would like to donate then you can drop off items to the church for the family and for the gentleman in the back you can e-mail me and I will get into touch with you to either pick up donations or give him your information to contact you. My e-mail is mandie_w_99@yahoo.com.
They r 7 5 3 year olds. And they need clothes and stuff