FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) – A structure fire in an abandoned home on Eielson Street in Fairbanks prompted the evacuation of residents of a neighboring home Saturday morning.
“There were no injuries or casualties, but one building was a total loss and the second building sustained some fire damage from the first fire,” said Andrew Coccaro, fire chief of the Fairbanks Fire Department.
The emergency call came in shortly after 8:30 a.m. Saturday and fire departments from Fairbanks, the university and Fort Wainwright responded to the fire.
“We had emergency crews out earlier because they saw the smoke coming from the station,” Coccaro said. The smoke was coming from the building on Eielson Street, which also caught fire last year and has been unoccupied since.
“The first ambulance crew woke up the people in the building on side B, where fire was actually caught, and got them out safely,” Cocarro said.
In this case, the “B side” refers to the building to the left of the main building fire when looking from the street. On Monday, the right side of the B building – the wall closest to the original fire – was visibly charred.
Coccaro said firefighters were on the scene for about 2 hours and 20 minutes from start to finish on Saturday.
He said officials did not know if there were people in the abandoned building when the fire started, but when firefighters arrived, no one was there.
State law requires emergency responders to identify what caused the fire. As of Monday, the fire chief was still investigating the incident.
“If someone says, ‘Hey, I was cooking a turkey and my oven exploded,’ then it’s pretty obvious where the fire started,” Cocarro said. “With something like a very large fire and a lot of damage, we want to take our time, so the fire marshal will be called in and do a much more detailed investigation.”
Coccaro said no third-party negligence was suspected.
Download the Newscenter Fairbanks apps today and stay up to date with the latest news and weather alerts.
All rights reserved.
