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| December 13, 2007 |
| Seven left homeless after fire: Martinsburg |
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Food left cooking on a kitchen stove was blamed as the cause of an early morning fire Thursday in Martinsburg that left seven people homeless.
According to Greg Hoover, a fire investigator with the Martinsburg Fire Department, the blaze caused between $50,000 and $75,000 in damage when french fries left cooking in grease on a stove in a house at 641 State Circle ignited. The fire spread from the kitchen to two other rooms and a hallway before being contained. “Pretty much the whole home is probably going to be a total loss,” Hoover said. Martinsburg firefighters were dispatched to the home at 6:11 a.m. Thursday. Hoover said he believed there were five adults and two children inside the house when the fire started. “I’m pretty sure some of them, if not all of them, were living there or at least staying there at that time,” Hoover said. Arrangements for the family were being made by the Red Cross. Hoover said firefighters got the fire under control in about 20 minutes. About 40 to 50 percent of the house was on fire when firefighters arrived at the scene, he said, adding that the rest of the home sustained heat and smoke damage. The fire is the second kitchen fire in the last two days to leave multiple people homeless. Another kitchen fire Wednesday afternoon destroyed a rental home in Jefferson County, injuring one person and leaving two others without a home. According to the U.S. Fire Administration, cooking equipment, most often a range or a stovetop, is the leading cause of reported home fires and home fire injuries in the United States. Cooking equipment is also the leading cause of unreported fires and associated injuries. According to the National Fire Protection Agency between 1999 and 2002, there were 114,000 reported home fires associated with cooking equipment, resulting in an annual 290 deaths and 4,380 injuries. Hoover had some cooking safety tips for those interested in preventing a cooking-related fire. “Definitely never leave a stove unattended. Definitely do not allow children to play with the stove. And make sure you have a working smoke detector,” Hoover said. This incident occured in Berkeley County. |
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Story by: Edward Marshall Source: The Journal |
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