WEST JORDAN, Utah, May 13, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — What began as a small deck fire Friday afternoon quickly blossomed into a wind-driven blaze that caused extensive damage to a West Jordan home before firefighters could snuff it out.
West Jordan Deputy Fire Chief Reed Scharman said a call came in at about 4 p.m. reporting a deck fire extending to the house at 7177 S. 1380 West.
First to arrive was a Unified Fire Authority unit out of Midvale.
“They started an attack, and as the other UFA and West Jordan units arrived, they proceeded to put the fire out,” Scharman told Gephardt Daily.
Scharman said a 55-year-old man who was at the scene needed some assistance and was transported to a hospital to be evaluated. The man had some injuries, but “we didn’t see any overt burns on him,” Scharman said.
It was determined that the man is the homeowner. Scharman said as far as he knew, no one else was in the home and there were no pets.
The exact cause of the fire is still under investigation, and Scharman didn’t have a dollar estimate on the damage, but he said the roof of the structure got the worst of it.
“Once they (firefighters) got in and started hitting it, they had to pull a lot of ceiling. The biggest thing was that the fire was driven up above the ceiling into the joists,” Scharman said. “…It’s a pretty flat roof, but the fire spread pretty much to both ends, so that caused an extensive amount of damage.”
The power meter and main utility box for the home are right next to where the fire was, Scharman said, so those were turned off, and with that and the damage to the roof, the home won’t be habitable until repairs are made. He said the Red Cross would be called, and the fire department would follow up with the homeowner in the hospital to make sure he and any family members have a place to stay.
