FIRE OF UNDETERMINED ORIGIN DAMAGES HOME NEAR ADVANCE

ADVANCE -- The cause of a fire that severely damaged a home near Advance Tuesday morning remained unknown.

Firefighters were investigating the fire, which occurred about a quarter-mile from the junction of County Road 204 and Highway 25. The one-and-one-half-story structure is owned by Charlotte Revelle.

Bill Birkman and his family had been renting the home for about a year. Birkman said he and his wife had been gone for about 30 minutes when they received a telephone call informing them of the fire from their son William, 15.

"He grabbed the phone and ran outside, and called to say smoke was coming out the back," said Birkman. "By the time we got out here the house was up in flames. I have no idea what happened."

Delta firefighter John Sachen said a call was received about the fire at 9:03 a.m. The fire was heavily involved in the lower level when the first fire truck arrived five minutes later.

Sachen said the fire was difficult to control because of the house's unique structure. Buildings with a balloon structure have hip walls and dormer windows that create "hidden" pockets, he said.

"This structure had a substantial number of interconnected concealed spaces," he said. "Once the fire enters those concealed spaces it becomes a very difficult fire to control and to extinguish."

The structure also existed in a tanker area, which meant all water used to fight the blaze had to be transported in tanker trucks, said Sachen. This increased the number of people needed to fight the fire.

Some 30 firefighters from Advance, Delta, Bollinger County Rural, Oran, Marble Hill, Gordonville, Bloomfield and Whitewater assisted in putting out the fire.

"This was a very serious fire. It took a lot of firefighters, and they made a super stop," said Sachen. "In a hydrant area, you use approximately three to four firefighters per hose line. But when you're in a tanker area you have to almost double that because you have to use an additional number to bring water to the scene and bring the apparatus back to a hydrant supply."

There were no injuries, but additional agencies were called in to relieve firefighters from the heat and time spent battling the fire. Although the house was not destroyed structurally, all of its contents were severely damaged because of the way the fire spread.