Firefighters respond to two-house fire

Scott Nuzum/Tribune photo A Fort Scott firefighter sprays water on a house at 111 S. Margrave St. early Saturday morning. A second house next door also caught fire.

A fire early Saturday morning involving three residences was still under investigation Monday.

Fort Scott Fire Chief Paul Ballou said the Fort Scott Police Department was the reporting party for a fire at 109 S. Margrave at 1:51 a.m. Saturday.

"They found it while on patrol. They were able to get two residents out," Ballou said. The two residents were at 111 S. Margrave, just to the south of 109 S. Margrave.

There were no injuries, he said.

Eleven Fort Scott Fire Department personnel responded to 109 S. Margrave to a house with a small apartment in back.

"111 S. Margrave, next door to the south, was an exposure fire," Ballou said.

Ballou said there was heavy fire coming from the unoccupied residences.

The FSFD responded with three engines, a rescue vehicle and a staff vehicle.

"The captain, the incident commander, requested mutual aide from Scott Township (Fire Department). They responded with two pumpers, two engines...and eight personnel," Ballou said.

The fire departments stayed on the scene until the investigators, both local and state, completed their work.

"At 5:40 a.m. we cleared with the trucks, the fire engines," he said.

The two residences at 109 S. Margrave were total losses, Chief Ballou said.

"The house at 111 was just starting to burn. It had fire in the attic," he said, adding he did not know at this time whether it was a total loss or not.