Fire burning within the walls of a Winfield home Sunday crept to the second floor of the house and caused a blaze that took firefighters a few hours to fully extinguish, fire officials said.
The fire caused at least $20,000 in damage to an older home at 403 Andrews owned by John Vongbolikhanh. Conrad Gomez, 23, is renting the house and was at home with his girlfriend at the time. Everyone escaped the home uninjured.
“The area of origin was pretty clear,” Capt. Larry Johnson said. “There was a wall furnace on the first floor and the fire spread up from it to the second floor. By the time we got there, there were flames visible.”
The fire occurred at approximately 10 a.m but firefighters remained on scene until nearly 2 p.m. Much of that time was spent searching the walls for hot spots. Much of the first floor received some damage but extensive smoke and water damage was done to the second floor.
The home is old enough that the damage may constitute a total loss, Johnson said.
“Everyone got out of the house OK, we were most pleased by that,” he said.
Units from Arkansas City assisted at the scene. Udall and Burden crews manned the fire station in Winfield while local firefighters were at the scene.
Lt. Alan Stoll, with the Winfield Fire Department, said the home did not have smoke detectors. A home equipped with detectors may have helped occupants to notice the fire sooner.
“It’s an important reminder,” he said. “The occupant had been smelling smoke.”
