NITRO, W.Va. — A blaze at a house on 40th Street in Nitro had a solid head start on firefighters when they finally got there Wednesday morning.
“It was well-involved when we got the call. We had heavy fire and exposure issues when we arrived on the scene,” said Nitro Fire Chief Casey Mathis.
Due to the close proximity of neighboring houses, the fire department jumped in quickly to try and keep the fire from spreading in the tight-fitting neighborhood.
“Everything is tight throughout town. We went to work fast on the exposure issue since the damage to the main fire building was extreme it becomes an issue of protecting exposure issues at that point,” Mathis said.
The firefighting effort was complicated by several renovations of the structure through the years which changed interior walls and the pitch of the roof. The changes left a lot of areas for air and fire to be trapped and quickly move through the house.
A second alarm was sounded to battle the blaze to provide more manpower.
Mathis said they may never know what caused the fire.
“We probably can’t get anybody in to even look at it due to the damage. We’re in the process of tearing this house down. We don’t’ know when it’s going to be, but we are going to tear it down,” he said.
Everyone living in the house were able to get out safely.