Fire guts south side home

A Monday night fire gutted a Cape Girardeau south side home.

When firefighters arrived at the scene at 323 S. Hanover St. around 7:24 p.m., about 50 percent of the first floor was engulfed in flames, according to fire battalion Chief Mike Ramsey.

The blaze gutted the home, causing about $40,000 in damage and making the structure uninhabitable, he said.

Heat from the fire melted window siding on a home south of the blaze, Ramsey added.

Firefighters brought the blaze at the one-and-a-half story, wood frame home under control at about 7:38 p.m., and the last piece of equipment left the scene at 9:49 p.m.

While investigators have narrowed the origin of the fire to a living area on the first floor, the cause was still unclear, according to Ramsey.

No one was injured in the blaze, and it was unclear whether anyone had been living in the home.