Electrical fire damages home

Friday, January 14, 2011

A fire at the home of Bourbon County Attorney Terri Johnson just before 10 p.m. Wednesday did an estimated $15,000 to the residence, Fort Scott Fire Chief Paul Ballou said.

Ballou said the fire started in the attic of the house and the cause was electrical and it was not set. He said the attic was "charred pretty good in a couple of places.

"We didn't have to remove any of the roof," Ballou said.

He said four firetrucks and eight firefighters were on the scene from 10 p.m. until a little after 1 a.m. Thursday putting out the blaze. "Attic fires are some of the worst kind of fires in houses because they're usually up above the smoke detectors, so smoke detection is delayed," Ballou said. Smoke ultimately builds up in the house and sets off the detector allowing residents time to get out, he said, but it's still dangerous.

"They're all dangerous, but these are more dangerous," Ballou said.

He said the electrical system was probably an older system that was possibly overloaded. "We see this type of thing. It's fairly common in these older systems," Ballou said.

Whendi Martin, executive director of the Bourbon County Chapter of the American Red Cross said the Johnson family "most definitely will get all the help we can give them."

Employees at the Bourbon County Courthouse on Thursday were collecting donations to the county attorney as well.