Attic insulation fire damages Columbus home

A hidden fire in the attic of a Washington Street home cause significant damage before being doused yesterday afternoon by Columbus firefighters.

According to the Columbus Fire Department, rescue workers were called to a home in the 2600 block of Washington Street at just after 5 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. The family at the home said that insulation had been blown into the attic earlier in the day and they noticed an unusual smell that started faint but grew in intensity. A contractor working in the area noticed smoke in the attic.

Firefighters arrived to find smoking coming from under the roof and from gable vents. Firefighters discovered a smoldering fire in the insulation and soon found that the fire had spread to a wider area under the insulation. A large section of ceiling in a bedroom had to be removed to extinguish the flames. Firefighters say a two-foot section of a joist had completely burned away and another joist was nearly burned through.

The family was able to escape before firefighters arrived and no one was injured. The family has been temporarily displaced due to the fire and water damage and are being assisted by the American Red Cross.

The cause of the fire is under investigation and no damage estimate is yet available.

The Columbus Fire Department is offering tips on protecting yourself from attic fires:

Battalion Chief Mike Sieverding, incident commander for the incident, said that attic fires can easily go unnoticed until smoke or flames enter the home’s living space.

“To provide early detection for an attic fire, the best alarm to consider is a heat detector style alarm,” said Battalion Chief Sieverding.

Sieverding added that a traditional smoke alarm installed in a hot and dusty attic space may produce false alarms, while a heat detector alarm is specially designed to alert when temperatures rise to conditions outside of normal attic temperatures, indicating a potential fire.

Sieverding also praised the homeowner’s persistence in attempting to identify the origin of the odor in the home and calling firefighters as soon as smoke was discovered.