Cedar City firefighters called out to abnormally high number of fires

Cedar City firefighters respond to their fifth fire in little more than 24 hours, Cedar City, Utah, Feb. 26, 2019 | Photo by Tracie Sullivan, St. George News / Cedar City News

CEDAR CITY — Cedar City firefighters responded to five fires between Monday afternoon and Tuesday evening.

“This is a record number for us,” Cedar City Fire Chief Mike Phillips said. “None of us remember, at least in the last 20 years, ever having five structure fires in barely more than 24 hours.”

Beginning Monday, crews responded to the first fire at 4981 W. 1125 South at around 3 p.m., where four puppies were killed, and the homeowner sustained first-degree burns while trying to rescue them. The home was destroyed.

Read more: Fire begins in doghouse, kills puppies and spreads to home

Fire crews from both New Harmony and Cedar City were called out again at 2 a.m. Tuesday on a chimney fire in New Harmony that spread throughout the entire home. The fire completely engulfed the structure and destroyed it.

“Crews were still on scene at 6 a.m. still actively working to overhaul it,” Phillips said.

Cedar City fire crews responded to the another house fire located at 1485 W. 400 North at around 12:14 p.m.

The cause of the fire was due to some of the grout in the chimney breaking loose, spreading the fire to the attic. However, crews were able to extinguish the flames prior to it spreading throughout the home, Phillips said.

Cedar City firefighters respond to their fifth fire in little more than 24 hours, Cedar City, Utah, Feb. 26, 2019 | Photo by Tracie Sullivan, St. George News / Cedar City News

Firefighters were just finishing up that blaze when they were called to respond to another on at 2161 West Skyview Drive, where a furnace had malfunctioned, causing flames to ignite. The home was not destroyed, but there was a lot of smoke throughout the structure, Phillips said.

Crews on Tuesday at 8 p.m. responded to a fire located at 755 S. 400 East.

The fire started in the garage and was largely contained there, but Phillips said it did spread into the attic area.

He said:

The homeowner was in bed when the smoke alarms went off. When he got out of bed he could smell smoke and then he heard something in the garage but fortunately he didn’t open the garage door to the house. And because he didn’t open that door he still has a home. If he would have opened the door he would have given the fire oxygen and the whole house could have gone up in flames.

The chief was unsure Tuesday night of how much damage the home sustained. The cause of the fire was also still unknown at that time.

No injuries were reported in the last four fires.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2019, all rights reserved.

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