Firefighters returned to the scene of a weekend house fire on Tuesday after the fire flared up again north of Tonganoxie, an emergency management official said.
Firefighters returned to the scene of a weekend house fire on Tuesday after the fire flared up again north of Tonganoxie, an emergency management official said.
The initial fire was reported early Sunday morning in what Leavenworth County Emergency Management Director Chuck Magaha described as the 21000 block of 207th Street.
Magaha said residents of the home had smelled the odor of an electrical fire earlier that night but did not find anything. At about 1 a.m. Sunday, they discovered that a front room of the house was on fire.
The residents were able to safely exit the house.
Magaha said the house had a concrete floor. But wood supporting the floor burned, and the floor caved in.
Firefighters from multiple departments responded to the fire.
Magaha said firefighters used tens of thousands of gallons of water while battling the fire Sunday. He said the closest hydrant was several miles away in the city of Tonganoxie, and water had to be shuttled to the scene.
"The cold weather did not help," Magaha said.
He said equipment can freeze in cold conditions.
Magaha said firefighters also had to watch out for concrete tiles that slid off the roof during the fire.
He said firefighters did not clear the scene Sunday until around 2:30 p.m.
One of the responders was reported to have suffered from overexertion but was not transported to the hospital, Magaha said.
Magaha said the fire is believed to have been caused by an electrical problem.
He said the loss was substantial.
"They have basically lost everything," Magaha said.
Firefighters returned to the scene Tuesday morning. They were at the scene for about 30 minutes, extinguishing a flare up.