Authorities say a house fire is believed to have started when a dog heater crashed during a snowstorm was under control, only to shoot and destroy a rural South Dakota home
YANKTON, SD – Authorities say a house fire that started when a dog heater crashed during a snowstorm is believed to have been controlled Monday night, only to fire early Tuesday and destroy a rural house in South Dakota.
The Yankton fire department said the electric fire that started at the dogs house around 7 p.m. Monday engulfed a shed, spread next to the house and settled in the attic. The fire also burned through a propane line connected to a 125-gallon tank.
Firefighters were home for two-and-a-half hours Monday night and thought they had put out the blaze, which displaced four people and the dog, deputy fire director and marshal Larry Nickles told Yankton Press & Dakotan.
When Nickles left the scene, two rooms had been damaged by water and slight smoke damage was reported elsewhere, but the house was in good condition so the heat was still on, he said. Firefighters cut holes in the house’s metal roof, but they may not have located all the burning material, prompting a reactivation on Tuesday, the deputy director said.
The house only had an isolated space between the roofs of the cathedral and the roof, which Nickles said was a factor in the crisis. Firefighters were called back to the scene around 5:15 a.m. Tuesday when flames were fired from the roof. At the time, the storm had made the roof too slippery to walk on.
“Our estimate now is that the house was totaled,” Nickles said. “The dog is not happy that he has lost his home, but there have been no injuries.”