FIRE: CAPE FAMILY ESCAPES FIRE

The cause of a house fire on south Pacific Street Wednesday evening may never be known, a Cape Girardeau Fire Department spokesman said.

About 7:50 p.m. firefighters received a call to respond to a house fire at 223 S. Pacific St., said Tom Hinkebein, shift commander.

The fire had been discovered by a woman who living in the rental property with five children several minutes before the call, Hinkebein said.

"She didn't have a phone there, so she had to go over to a neighbor's to call us," Hinkebein said.

Although no one was injured and damage to the house was moderate, the lack of a phone created a potential danager. Most fires double in size every 30 seconds, with variations depending on what is burning, Hinkebein said.

The fire had started in a rear bedroom of the two-floor house. Joannie Smith had left her bedroom to tell her children, who were watching television in the living room, to not be so loud. Smith could smell smoke in the living room, and then saw smoke and flames coming from a bathroom ajoining the living room.

However, the flames were coming from the rear bedroom, which was next to the bathroom, Hinkebein said.

Hinkebein called the blaze a "textbook fire," since all firefighters had to do was come in the front door with hoses and blow the flames out through the back of the house.

Firefighters found one smoke detector in the house, but it wasn't working.

"There was plenty of smoke in there, so it should have went off," Hinkebein said. "It was just a matter of buying a battery."

Rental property with three units are more are required to have working smoke detectors, but only Smith with her children and a female college student lived at the house, Hinkebein said.

Damage was estimated at $7,000, he said.

Smith had told firefighters that she thought her landlord's insurance would pay for damage to her furniture and personal items. But she was mistaken.

"Very few people think about renter's insurance until after a fire," he said.