Two people avoided serious injuries Saturday afternoon when they escaped a burning Lewiston home.
After a man at the home helped an elderly woman exit the house, he returned to rescue pets, said Lewiston Fire Battalion Chief Chris Jacks.
He grabbed a fire extinguisher hoping to stop the blaze and, when he opened a door to the house, suffered burns to his arms that didn’t require hospitalization, Jacks said.
Nothing has been determined about the cause of the fire in the home on the northwest corner of 8th Avenue and 16th Street, other than it appears to have started on the west or back side of the house, Jacks said.
The estimated damage to the house at this time is $250,000, he said.
The response was complicated by the weather and remodeling that had been done to the home, which is more than 100 years old, Jacks said.
“You just have a lot of hidden spaces,” he said.
The fire reached an attic between the highest of two ceilings and the roof, as well the home’s main floor, Jacks said.
Crews cut a rectangular hole in the home’s steep metal roof as rain fell, making the surface slick. The job required a circular saw and a chainsaw, he said.
The opening allows heat to vent and makes it less likely the blaze will reignite, Jacks said.
Firefighters were planning to check on the home intermittently throughout the night, he said.
A total of 19 firefighters from the cities of Lewiston and Clarkston responded to the fire, which was reported to emergency dispatchers at 3:14 p.m. Jacks said.
They were joined by two fire investigators and Lewiston Fire Chief Greg Rightmier, he said.
