Space heater likely cause of Edgerton fire

Fire Chief Scott Blue said the Ohio Fire Marshal’s Office was at the site Monday, calling it an accidental fire, though they don’t know the exact cause. He expects “something” got too close to a space heater, but they couldn’t determine what.

“An elderly lady lives in the house, she escaped and she was really lucky,” he said. “Her clothes were scorched, her shoes were scorched ... she had to run past the fire.”

Blue said she was out when the department got there, with two people from across the street helping her out and across the street for medics to take care of her.

“She was treated and released at the hospital,” he said. “Smoke inhalation would be the worst (injury). The scorching wasn’t anything that got mentioned to anybody.”

Fire was coming out of the front window by the time firefighters arrived on the scene.

A door to the east blew out, Blue said, with flames coming out of there, too.

“It took the power lines down just as we were getting ready to go in that door,” he said. “We didn’t change our plans, we just had to work around live power lines.”

Adding to the scene was a “tremendous of amount of ammunition” that was ignited in the fire, Blue said.

“When we got there it sounded like the Fourth of July,” Blue said. “Ammunition in boxes isn’t as big a hazard as ammunition in a chamber. When it’s in a chamber on a gun, that makes it propel. But when it’s in a box they go off as fireworks. They can still hurt you, but it’s not near as bad.”

Fire damage was contained to a single room at the front of the house, though the rest of the house received heat and water damage.

Blue said the fire was out fairly quickly, only taking water from the first truck. However, crews spent a couple hours working on hotspots.

“The insurance adjuster hasn’t been there, yet, but it could wind up being total (loss),” he said. “That just means the insurance company will total it and walk away from it and the owner can do what they want.”

Responding to the scene were Edgerton, Butler, Indiana, and Bryan fire departments, Edgerton Police Department, Williams County EMS and Williams County Sheriff’s Office.

At 6:08 p.m., while still at the fire on Morrison Street, Blue said they were called out to a barn fire at U.S. 6 and County Road 1. That turned out to just be a garbage fire that was quickly extinguished.