Clothes dryer cited as culprit in fire

BISMARCK — A clothes dryer that malfunctioned was the cause of a fire that destroyed a two-story frame house here Friday morning, according to an investigator with the State Fire Marshal’s Office.

Investigator Roger Windle said the clothes dryer was located on the first floor near the rear of the house. He indicated the appliance had apparently been malfunctioning for about a week, based on what he was told by the victim.

Angie Young and a woman who had spent the night at her house barely managed to escape the burning structure. They were sleeping on the second floor of the house when dense smoke awoke them at about 7 a.m. They managed to get out despite the flames that had spread through the first floor and the extremely dense smoke.

“They were fortunate,” said Deputy Fire Chief Rodger Turner of Bismarck. “This could have been a real tragedy.”

Other firefighters said the two women were lucky they were not overcome by smoke in their sleep. They said that happens too often in cases where fires occur late at night or early in the morning.

Young and her mother said despite the loss of the house and all of its contents, they are very glad that Young’s three sons were not at home when the fire occurred. They were staying with their father Thursday night.

There was concern that a pet cat perished in the fire, though it had not yet been confirmed. The family’s dog, Ozzie, was tied to a dog house at the rear of the property and was not endangered by the blaze. After the wind shifted, Young and a friend retrieved the dog to get it out of the thick smoke that was engulfing the back yard.

“She has lost everything,” said Young’s mother as she watched firefighters continue to battle the blaze. Everything included the family’s clothing, furniture and all of their personal effects. Nothing was saved.

Turner said he lives just two blocks from the Spruce Street residence where the fire occurred and arrived on the scene in just minutes after the first alarm was sounded.

“It was rockin’ and rollin’ when I got here,” Turner said. “There was fire coming out of every downstairs window and dense smoke was pouring out of the upstairs.”

The veteran firefighter was visibly disappointed that they could not save the house. “There are some where you lose,” he observed, “and today we were the losers.”

One of the other first firemen on the scene said they made a quick attack on the interior of the house but were driven back by the heat and flames. They then battled the blaze through the windows until they could reenter the structure.

About an hour after the fire was discovered, Turner ordered all firefighters out of the house when flames broke through the roof. A half hour later he sent teams back inside but once more they had to be pulled out when portions of the structure began to collapse.

Trying to save a house that had been virtually destroyed by that time was not worth further risk to the firefighters, Turner explained.

It took nearly three hours to bring the blaze under control. Some firefighters were on the scene for more than four hours.

Firefighters and equipment from 10 area departments responded to the scene and another was on standby at the Bismarck fire station. Those departments on the scene included Bismarck, Big River, Desloge, Doe Run, Park Hills, Leadwood, Wolf Creek, Potosi, and De Soto Rural. At the fire station was the Irondale Fire Department, ready to respond to any other calls that might come in.

An ambulance and crew from St. Francois County Ambulance District also responded to assist firefighters in dealing with the heat and smoke. There were no injuries reported.