Fire causes structural damage

With billows of smoke pouring from a rooftop, neighbors at West Curry Court looked on as firefighters worked to put out a fire that left one house with structural damage and others with smoke damage.\nWhile the cause of the fire is still under investigation, Bloomington Fire Department Chief Robert Johnson said the fire originated in the garage of the house, 4212 W. Curry Ct.\nSeveral fire trucks from both Bloomington and Ellettsville, ambulances and police cars arrived on scene about 8 p.m. after receiving several 911 calls from neighbors.\nEllettsville Fire Department Engineer Rocky Sexton said as his truck arrived there was smoke pouring out of the garage.\nAs neighbors sat on the sidewalks waiting, some with smoke masks on, firefighters packed on oxygen tank after oxygen tank as they moved through the house. Forty-eight minutes after they arrived on the scene, firefighters said they finally had the fire under control. \nBecky Stoll, a next-door neighbor, said she became alarmed when she smelled a strong odor of smoke coming from outside. Her house, which sits only a couple of feet away from the garage next door, was full of smoke.\n"I made the second call to 911 when I smelled something outside," she said. "I saw a big cloud of smoke coming out and when I went to the front door and I just saw ash and red sparks and all of the sudden it went 'poof'."\nStoll said she saw people grab water hoses to try and control the fire, but it was only making it worse. \n"Every time they shot water, flames came really close to my house," Stoll said. \nStoll said she made the decision to go inside her house and get her son and animals out.\n"I could just tell it was too close to my house and I didn't know how far away the fire trucks were," she said. "I thought it was going to catch my house on fire."\nAs firefighters began to contain the flames and smoke, several entered the garage to begin tracing the source of the fire and remove rubble.\nBurnt plastic toys and charred metal tricycles sat in the garage next to a wooden bench and wooden steps that had visible smoke and fire damage. The roof and gutters on the house were also slightly charred with visible damage.\nFirefighters began to carry shovels of ash and burnt fabrics down the steps into a pile outside of the garage while both the Ellettsville and Bloomington Fire Chiefs began to trace the source of the fire inside the garage.\nAnd while the firefighters were inspecting, the neighbors were talking. Stoll alluded to a similar event a year ago, saying this was not the first fire that had occurred at her neighbor's residence.\n"This is the second one," she said. "She had one around March 31, so it was just over a year ago. Apparently it was a grease pan fire -- the kitchen was torched; they just had to redo it."\nJohnson said he could not confirm or deny any details about a prior fire including the determined cause without looking back on prior records. The Bloomington Fire Department dispatch could not be reached by press time for comment.\nDespite being removed from her home for nearly an hour, Stoll tried to look at the situation in a positive light.\n"There's no gas here, it's all electric," Stoll said. "So I guess that's the good news in all of this."\n-- Contact Campus Editor Mallory Simon at mgsimon@indiana.edu.