House fire doused while Olympic torch burns
By Mona Mattei
While the Olympic Torch Relay celebrations were well underway, the Grand Forks Fire Department was busy dousing another flame. A small house fire broke out at 557 – 72 Ave. The department responded quickly, and had the fire under control in about 15 minutes once they were on the scene according to fire chief Blair MacGregor.
“It was a storage area in an addition to the house and it was fully engulfed and up into the roof when we got there,” said MacGregor. “Luckily, because of the time of day and the fact that we had a crew sitting in the park in the truck we caught it really quickly”
The house is a rental unit and the main portion of the house was saved although the tenants lost everything in the storage area. The sister of the tenant happened to stop in to pick up something when she noticed the smell of smoke and called the fire in.
Twenty fire fighters responded to the call, said MacGregor. After they put the fire out they placed fans outside the home to blow fresh air through the house to minimize smoke damage in the main part of the house. There is no information on the exact cause of the fire at this time, although MacGregor said it is not suspicious.
