Fire quickly extinguished at rural residence Sunday

Multiple agencies responded to a house fire Sunday evening south of Fort Scott.

Delwin Mumbower, coordinator for Bourbon County Fire District No. 3, said fire departments responded just after 5:30 p.m. to a report of a structure fire in the 2100 area of Grand Road. Fire officials said the fire was electrical in nature and confined to an electric box inside the house.

Mumbower said an exact cause of the fire has not been determined but it is believed to have started in an electrical service panel, or a breaker box, in the house. Local fire departments are investigating to determine an exact cause.

Fire fighters were able to extinguish the fire before it could do a significant amount of damage.

"What actually caused it I'm not sure," he said. "There's some evidence of arcing on the pole. That could have been what caused the short circuit and started the fire ... it could have been a faulty connector or breaker, one of the two."

Mumbower estimated total damages to be "in the neighborhood of $2,000."

"The house damage was not a whole lot," he said. "An electrician will have to replace the service box. We did have to remove some siding on the outside where the fire went up the wall above the service panel."

Mumbower said the occupants of the house were home at the time of the fire but were able to exit and no injuries were reported. He said the fire was reported quickly, which was beneficial in getting the fire out before it spread.

"They noticed the lights started flickering, and went to the living room and saw smoke," he said. "We got a fast call and were able to take care of it before it got very far."

Although there were no injuries, Mumbower said Mercy EMS sent an ambulance to the scene for standby, "which they usually do for structure fires."

Fire fighters remained on scene for about an hour and a half to check for hot spots in case the fire rekindled.

"We took the breaker box out to make sure there was nothing still hot there," Mumbower said. "The fire was out real quick."

Agencies that responded were District No. 3, which sent seven trucks and 12 personnel, Redfield Fire Department which sent one truck and three personnel, Garland Fire Department with one truck and one firefighter, and the Fort Scott Fire Department which sent a two-person crew.

Scott Township Interim Fire Chief Jason Eastwood said that department responded with three trucks and 16 personnel."

"Dispatch paged us and Scott Township," Mumbower said.

Mumbower said the high number of responding agencies is "not typical" but the location of the fire happened to be on the border between two fire districts - District No. 3 and Scott Township.

"Grand Road is the dividing line between Scott Township and District 3," he said. "We have an automatic agreement with Redfield for structure fires, so they came."

He said a large response is good as fire fighters typically don't know what to expect until they arrive on the scene.

"All we got was a report of a structure fire," he said. "You don't know what it is until we get a truck on scene."

Mumbower said the residents will be able to live in the house.

"They should be able to stay there," he said. "They may be without electricity."