O’Fallon house fire started in the basement, chief says

O’Fallon Fire Department were called to a structure fire Thursday afternoon.

At 1:45 p.m. the fire department got a call from a neighbor that reported an explosion and smoke in the basement of a home on West Madison.

The firefighters arrived to the scene at about 1:50 p.m. along with firefighters from Troy, Fairview Heights, and Scott Air Force Base fire departments.

The fire began in the basement of the home and spread to the second floor attic, said O’Fallon Fire Chief Brian White. No one was home at the time of the fire.

“The home was being maintained but the owner has not lived in the house in several years,” White said. “It’s an elderly man who lives there with his son so they maintain the house but no one lives in it.”

The fire was extinguished in about an hour but it caused extensive damage. As of Friday afternoon, the cause of the fire is unknown.

“The floors and stairs collapsed so we weren’t able to get inside to the basement, right now we left it undetermined. We do know Ameren was working an electrical issue for the entire neighborhood at the time but there’s nothing to say that was directly responsible for the fire.”

One firefighter was transported to St. Elizabeth’s hospital because of the extreme heat.

This story was originally published August 13, 2021 at 2:00 PM.