Fire destroys home on Pendelton Road

A two-story wood-framed home in St. Francois County was destroyed in a Wednesday morning fire that also caused a brushfire in an adjoining field.

Firefighters responded to a 10:19 a.m. call reporting a large amount of black smoke rising from a home located at 963 Pendelton Road. By the time the Doe Run Fire Department arrived on the scene, Fire Chief Lynn Kindle described the residence as being “100% fully involved with the second story already collapsed.”

According to Kindle, firefighters went into a defense mode where they began attacking the fire from the exterior of the structure.

“When I got there, she was cooking pretty good — I mean, she was hot,” he said.

There were initial concerns that at least one person might be in the house, but Kindle confirmed that was not the case.

“We were told there may have been, but it was unconfirmed,” he said. “As soon as we got the fire knocked to a point where it was safe, we did a search and nobody was in the residence, which is a good thing.”

Although the St. Francois County Ambulance District was on the scene as firefighters attempted to bring the fire under control, no injuries occurred.

Kindle estimated that it took “several hours” to bring the house fire and brushfire under control.

“It took some time because all that metal was trapping it down and we had to get it to where we could get in and get the metal pulled out to where we could get the rest of the fire put out,” he said.

Kindle advised that an investigation of the fire’s cause is already underway by the Missouri Fire Marshal’s Office.

“We had them called and a representative from their office did show up,” he said. “They’re doing the investigation, so we don’t know anything as of right now.”

Other departments responding to the fire in addition to Doe Run were Farmington, Wolf Creek, Pilot Knob, Cherokee Pass, Big River and De Soto Rural. Potosi moved up to cover for Doe Run.

A mobile home fire Tuesday morning on Hickory Street in Farmington was quickly extinguished by the Farmington Fire Department.

Farmington Fire Chief Todd Mecey stated that a Farmington police lieutenant on patrol discovered the fire in the 200 block and called it in.

“He made contact with the resident and they were able to safely escape,” he said.

When firefighters arrived within two minutes of the 7:30 a.m. alarm, smoke was showing and there was an active fire inside the mobile home. The blaze was under control within 10 minutes.

Mecey stated that the first alarm was quickly disregarded with Wolf Creek Fire Department put on standby until the response was completed.

An investigator with the department determined that the fire was electrical and accidental in nature.

According to Mecey, the structure had moderate fire damage and extensive smoke damage. There were no injuries.

“As soon as we got the fire knocked to a point where it was safe, we did a search and nobody was in the residence, which is a good thing.” – Lynn Kindle, Doe Run fire chief

Firefighters work to extinguish a Wednesday morning fire on Pendelton Road in St. Francois County. A two-story residence was completely destroyed in the blaze that took several hours to be brought under control, along with a brushfire in an adjoining field.

The Farmington Fire Department quickly put out a fire in the 200 block of Hickory Street Tuesday morning.

Kevin R. Jenkins is the managing editor of the Farmington Press and can be reached at 573-783-9667 or kjenkins@farmingtonpressonline.com