Red, White & Blue Responds to Small House Fire

Monday, January 15, 2007 - Breckenridge, CO

At approximately 11:30 a.m. Monday morning, Red, White & Blue firefighters responded to a 911 call for smoke in the basement.

When firefighters arrived at 1377 Broken Lance Dr., they immediately extinguished the smoldering wood siding on the outside area of the house where a fire had started. The homeowner, Burke McHugh, told firefighters that his son put warm ashes from the wood burning stove into a paper bag and placed it outside on the woodpile, which was adjacent to the home, at approximately 10 a.m. Burke called 911 about an hour and a half later when he smelled smoke inside the house.

Red, White and Blue stayed on scene and helped clear the smoke that was in the crawl space. Damage was minimal and isolated to a small section of the outside siding. The 3800 square foot home has been in the McHugh family for 36 years and just last week, had upgraded to a monitored fire alarm system, which also alerted the fire department.

"The occupants are very lucky they were at home and awake at the time of the fire," said Battalion Chief Mike Rutherford. "They were able to call 911 when they first smelled smoke which allowed us to extinguish the fire quickly and minimize damage to the house," he said.

Citizens are reminded to put fireplace or wood burning stove ashes into a metal container and allow it to cool completely before further disposal. Red, White & Blue also reminds folks to stack their wood piles at least 10 feet from their house.

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Press Contact:
Capt. Kim Scott, PIO
cell: 970.485.4374
email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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