Deputy, reporting person wake 6 people while porch on fire

Four adults and two children were spared from a house fire early Tuesday morning in Cape Girardeau County.

A deputy and the reporting person are being credited for alerting all six from their sleep while the front porch was ablaze.

Gordonville Fire Protection District was dispatched to a mobile home park west of Cape Girardeau at 2:24 a.m., according to GFPD chief Michael Gentry. The front porch of a mobile home was on fire.

Two deputies arrived at the scene before firefighters arrived, Gentry said. The reporting party shouted to wake three of the occupants, who escaped out the front door. But three other people remained inside.

That's when one of the deputies, Cpl. Jason Jurgens, entered, shutting the door behind him, in an attempt to keep the fire from entering the building, Gentry said. The deputy was able to alert the three remaining occupants, who exited out the back of the home safely.

Gentry said by the time the fire department arrived 10 minutes after the 911 call, the home was 25% engulfed. Gentry said the structure was determined to be a loss, but the residents were able to remove many of their belongings.

"We were glad they got out," he said. "Those structures go up pretty fast."

Gentry said the cause of the fire is undetermined.

"We're appreciative of Gordonville Fire," Cape Girardeau Sheriff's Office public information officer Sgt. Cody Windbigler said. "They did a really good job and did the majority of the work."

Departments providing mutual aid included:

* Jackson;

* Cape Girardeau;

* Fruitland;

* East County Fire Protection.