Crews tackle two-story house fire in Park Hills Thursday night

Several area firefighters responded to a house fire in Park Hills Thursday night.

Fire departments were dispatched at 7:57 p.m. to a two-story house in the 200 block of Reuter Street in Park Hills.

Park Hills Fire Chief Brad Weiss said the first Park Hills fire truck arrived at the address at 8:01 p.m. to find fire coming from the basement on both sides of the house.

A Reuter Street house in Park Hills remains cordoned off by fire tape pending an investigation of a fire.

The chief said crews made their initial push into the house, and a propane tank ruptured in the basement, forcing them to back out and attempt to get back down into the basement.

“We ended up striking a second alarm because, by the time we got there, there was fire on the first floor and the second floor,” Weiss explained. “So with that size house, we just wanted to make sure we had the manpower there to do it.”

Soot can be seen above some of the windows of a Park Hills home damaged by fire Thursday night. 

Weiss said the majority of the fire damage was contained to the basement, but the first floor had already collapsed when firefighters first arrived on the scene.

The chief explained that fighters had the fire under control within approximately 40 minutes and remained on the scene for a little more than three hours performing overhauls and cleanup.

There were reportedly no injuries during the fire. Weiss said the home was unoccupied and had recently been vacated by an older couple who had moved in with some of their family members.

Weiss said the cause of the fire was undetermined but would be investigated by the Missouri State Fire Marshal’s Office in the coming days.

“All in all, it actually went really well,” Weiss added. “It was just such a large house.”

The basement of a Reuter Street house in Park Hills is flooded, and the floor above it collapsed following a fire Thursday night.  

Assisting the Park Hills Fire Department with Thursday night’s containment efforts were mutual aid fire companies from Leadington, Desloge, Farmington, Bonne Terre/Big River, Wolf Creek, Bismarck, Doe Run, and Leadwood.

A Park Hills home sustains significant damage during a Thursday night fire.

Some siding on the upper portion of a two-story house is melted following a fire at the Park Hills address Thursday night. 

Bobby Radford is a reporter for the Daily Journal. He can be reached at bradford@dailyjournalonline.com