(Lake Park)– No injuries were reported earlier this (Saturday) evening in a fire in Lake Park that destroyed a storage shed and its contents and heavily damaged two neighboring homes. Lake Park Fire Chief Brandon Ehret tells KUOO news they were called to 1006 Clayton Street around 6:20 pm…
“Upon arrival we found the shed completely engulfed. There was an RV motorhome out in front of the garage that was fully engulfed in flames. There was a couple of jet skis out in front. We had two houses, one on the south, one on the north. The siding actually burned all the way to the sheeting on the house to the north of the structure, and the siding was melting off of the south house when we pulled up. We got a couple of hand lines out to get the house protected right away. We put our big deck gun monitor out to cool down the garage shed and get the fire knocked down that way, in really short order, actually.”
Ehret says the dollar amount of property loss is significant…
“The shed, it’s contents and RV that was sitting out front was a total loss. And the house to the north, which is actually the house that is the same ownership as the shed, sustained major fire damage on the south side facing the shed. But it did not burn, it did not have fire extension into the attic or into the roof or anything. We checked on that multiple times. So the house is deemed safe at that point.”
The cause is uncertain as of now…
“They had a boat, UTV, and some other stuff in the shed, some building materials and what not. Going to rule it undetermined. We don’t know what started it.”
Ehret says the fire was discovered by the homeowner…
“The homeowners were home at the time. He said he had been out in the garage about an hour prior to discovering the fire. When he came out it was blowing out the front doors on the garage doors of the building, so.”
The Spirit Lake and Milford Fire Departments assisted on the scene along with the Lake Park Ambulance, Lake Park Police Department, and the Dickinson County Sheriff’s Office. Firefighters were on the scene about three hours.
On another note, Ehret says they had way too many gawkers and passersby. He says everyone needs to stay away from fire scenes…
“We had a lot of trouble with extra cars, people looking around. We actually had trouble getting our fire trucks on the scene because of people blocking the road.”
Ehret says minutes matter when it comes to getting to a fire scene. He says another five minutes or so and the house immediately adjacent to the shed would have caught fire.
