House fire count continues to increase

A house fire on Thursday and another Friday continues the trend of increasing structure fire calls for the El Dorado Fire Department this year.

“We are quite a bit higher,” said Capt. Ricke Whiteside on the number of fire calls.

They have had 32 fire calls, which includes things such as a faulty electrical socket or a pot on the stove, as well as fires, since January of this year. The normal number of structure fire calls is 20 to 25 for a year.

Of those 32 calls, 15 were in the last month. There have been six or seven house fires just this summer.

The Thursday fire occurred at about 1:42 p.m. in the 300 block of West Kansas, according to Whiteside.

The owner was home when the fire started, but was not injured. The cause of this fire is still under investigation. The damage was estimated at about $35,000.

The Friday fire the El Dorado Department helped respond to was on Ohio Street south of Highway 254.

The Towanda Fire Department received the call of the fire at about 9:30 a.m.

No one was home at the time of the fire, according to Jerry Murphy, Towanda fire fighter.

Towanda received mutual aid from El Dorado, Benton, Augusta and Andover in fighting the fire, which they had under control in about an hour and 15 minutes.

The house was not a total loss and the amount of damage has not been determined yet.

Murphy said the cause of the fire, which started in the basement, is still under investigation.

The house fires all have been caused by different circumstances.

“We’ve had everything from a child playing with a lighter to a propane leak on the propane tank,” Whiteside said.