2 fires responsible for total loss of house, mobile home in Perry County

Two fires in Perry County this week caused total losses at a mobile home and a house under construction.

Bill Jones, assistant chief of the Perryville Fire Department and Perry County Rural Fire Protection District, said passers-by reported both fires -- the first Sunday night at a mobile home on Highway 51 in the area south of Perryville known as Friendly Valley.

Firefighters received a call at 10:42 p.m. Sunday with a report of light smoke in the area and an orange glow visible inside the mobile home, where Jones said a couple lived, but were not home at the time of the fire.

Fire damage in the mobile home was limited to the kitchen and living room area, but heat and smoke damage caused a total loss, Jones said. The cause of the fire was undetermined but it is believed to have started in the living room, on or near a recliner.

Then early Thursday, a motorist on U.S. 61 called in a fire at 3:19 a.m. at a large house being built at 239 County Road 400 near Longtown. Flames were showing, the caller reported, and by the time crews from several fire departments arrived, fire had spread throughout most of the structure, Jones said.

The approximately 2,200-square-foot house, Jones said, was being newly constructed.

An initial investigation by the fire department and another investigation by an insurance company could not determine the cause of the fire, and burn patterns were "somewhat odd," Jones said, but the fire is not considered suspicious. Wind may have played a role in spreading the fire, he said, and the house is considered a total loss.

eragan@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

Perryville, MO