[1]Smoke billows above the 700 block of Tucker Road, northeast of Toledo. / Courtesy photo by Julie Broussard
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A Toledo area home went up in flames yesterday evening but a young couple and their dog escaped safely.
The fire appeared to have started inside the attached metal carport at the modular home on the 700 block of Tucker Road, according to Lewis County Fire District 2.
“They got out of the house, it very quickly got inside the house,” FIre Chief Grant Wiltbank said.
Five fire departments responded to the approximately 6:15 p.m. call about five miles northeast of town, according to Wiltbank.
The chief said he lives a couple miles away across the river and when the call came out, he looked that direction and spotted a column of black smoke already probably two hundred feet into the sky.
Arriving crews quickly contained the blaze but remained on the scene for nearly three hours extinguishing hot spots.
Wiltbank said the home and its contents are a total loss. One cat was unaccounted for and presumed lost in the fire, he said.
They thought the lost their dog, but it apparently made it out by itself, and turned up sitting in a field, he said.
The Red Cross responded to offer assistance. The fire’s cause is still under investigation.