Tuesday night house fire leaves family homeless

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BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR

FORT MADISON - Fort Madison firefighters battled two blazes on Tuesday, one ending with a family being displaced from their home.

At about 6:45 p.m. a fire broke out in the attic of home at 429 Avenue D. No one was at the home at the time the fire broke out, according to Fort Madison Fire Chief Joey Herren.

The fire is under investigation, but he he said the point of origin was in the attic.

"It's under investigation but we believe it started with some wiring in the attic," Herren said.

Fort Madison Fire Chief Joey Herren talks to a neighbor after a fire broke out at home at 429 Avenue D Tuesday night. Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC

He said the damage was heavy enough that the family wasn't able to return to the home.

"I notified Red Cross and they're helping."

At around 11 a.m., firefighters were called to the 2600 block of Avenue where a garage had caught fire.

Herren said residents were stealing electricity from Alliant energy by running wires from the meter base on the garage to the house and the make-shift junction box caught fire.

Due to the close proximity of the fire station, the building wasn't a total loss.

"It had some minor fire and smoke damage and some damage to the rafters, but it was pretty close to the station and we got it down pretty quick," Herren said.

family, fire, fort madison, garage, home, Joey Herren, Pen City Current

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