By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The fire that consumed an Onalaska family’s home is being blamed on a heat lamp that was keeping baby chicks warm.
Fire Investigator Ted McCarty said it wasn’t necessarily that it got knocked over.
“It had been on for a month and probably dried out the sawdust, which got hot and ignited,” McCarty said.
One of the residents was cooking breakfast when she smelled smoke, looked all around the house and couldn’t find anything, according to McCarty. Until she opened the back door and saw the shed burning, he said.
Firefighters responding about 8 a.m. on Sunday to the 600 block of Middle Fork Road found the manufactured home fully engulfed [1] in flames.
She grabbed their dogs and got outside and two of their kittens were found alive, but others plus the chicks perished.
Lewis County Fire District 1 Assistant Chief Rhonda Volk said the couple lived there with their niece who is in her 20s.
They didn’t have any insurance, McCarty said.