by Geoff Fox
An early morning electrical fire caused some damage to home on Resley Road west of Hancock on Friday, August 3 around 12:30 a.m.
According to Hancock Fire Chief Robert Hoopengardner the fire was in the attic above the bathroom closet in a light fixture. The attic, he said, had about six to eight inches of blown insulation in it.
The electric was turned off to the house and the fire was quickly put out.
“A lot of the insulation was removed along with the burned wood and the light fixture,” Hoopengardner said. “The area was wet down and checked with a thermal imaging camera.”
He added everything appeared to be out.
Fire crews were called back out later that morning around 9:30 a.m. for a re-kindle.
Hoopengardner said he wasn’t on the scene for that call, but Little Orleans Fire Company Fire Chief John Clingerman was in charge.
Even though crews had cleaned out the burned area earlier and checked it with the thermal imaging camera and wet the area down, Hoopengardner said a hot ember somewhere in the insulation was missed and smoldered all night.
The ember grew in size, burning through two 2×6 boards and causing damage to the air conditioning duct.
Hoopengardner said Clingerman had the crews remove a large area of the blown insulation to make sure it did not happen again.
After the removal of the insulation, crews wet the entire area down with water.
Fire companies from Washington County, Allegany County, Fulton County and Morgan County, as did Hancock Rescue Squad, responded to the scene.
