Belleville firefighters dispatched to same house twice within hours
Belleville firefighters were dispatched to the same home in the 700 bock of South First Street twice within hours to put out a fire.
Three people were inside the residence each time. No one was injured, though a woman at the house had to be rescued from a second-story window.
Belleville Fire Chief Tom Pour said the cause of the fires are still under investigation but that they are considered suspicious.
The fire department received the first call at 10 p.m. Wednesday.They were told the back door was on fire, said Pour.
“We used a water extinguisher to put it out,” Pour said. “It was smoldering, not burning. It only took a couple of seconds.”
Firefighters determined that the exterior door on the back porch had a rug on it that someone tried to set on fire. While they were there, they installed smoke detectors because the home was not previously equipped with them, said Pour.
At 1:30 a.m. Thursday, the fire department received the second call. Flames were visible on the entire back part of the house. A female resident, who re-entered the building to save her cats, was rescued from a second-story window.
“When we got there, the back of the house was on fire. Smoke was pouring out,” Pour said. “The bottom floor of the house was on fire. A woman was upstairs. We used a ground ladder and got her out of the window.
“The other two people in the residence were downstairs and they got out OK.”
This story was originally published June 11, 2020 at 11:17 AM.
