POLICE DISCOVER HOUSE FIRE

Elyria – On patrol late Friday night, Elyria Police Sergeant Ryan Warfield found himself on Gateway Blvd, near Con-Sun. Warfield noticed smoke coming across the road so he parked his car and began to investigate.

He discovered the source of the smoke – a fire in a house at 417 West River Road South. While Warfield is calling his Dispatcher to contact Fire, you could hear him pounding on the door of the home.

Additional Officers arrived moments later and began knocking on neighbors doors to discover if the home that was on fire was truly vacant or not. They quickly got their answer from neighbors but continued to check through windows and open doorways to make sure nobody was inside of the structure.

Elyria Firefighters arrived and found fire coming from the basement area of the home and it was climbing up the stairwell.

Captain Joe Pronesti of the Elyria Fire Department said that Firefighters knocked it down quickly and then began ventilating the structure. Once ventilated, they were able to investigate if any of the fire had spread into the walls – it did not.

Pronesti called the fire “suspicious in nature” and that the Fire Department Prevention Bureau was on scene investigating the cause.

One neighbor who was awakened by the Police Officers said they were grateful that they had been so alert to discover the fire. “At this hour of the night (1:30am) if they had not discovered it how much worse would it have been? If that had gotten out of control man that could have taken out other houses. This is not a real busy street, I’m just real happy that the cop drove down here tonight and saw this and they got us all up.”

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