Christmas morning blaze damages MP home

BY BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

It wasn?t a very merry Christmas for one Mt. Pleasant family as an early morning fire Christmas day extensively damaged a home at 1007 W. Saunders St.

Stewart Kinney, Mt. Pleasant fire chief, said a neighbor reported the fire shortly after 4 a.m. Dec. 25.

Eighteen Mt. Pleasant firefighters responded to the blaze, and Kinney said the fire already was raging in the two-story wood-frame house. ?It had been burning for quite a while when we got there,? said Kinney. ?It had a real good head start.? Firefighters were on the scene for three hours and had to return at about 10 a.m. to extinguish a hot spot.

The house was owned by Mark Nelson, of Mt. Pleasant, and had been undergoing extensive renovation. At the time of the fire, no one was occupying the house. Nelson and his wife were living in an apartment near the home. ?They were about done with the remodeling and about ready to move in,? Kinney said.

According to the website Beacon, the house was built in 1900, and Nelson purchased the structure in September of 2015.

Kinney said both floors of the home sustained major damage.

The fire chief said he doesn?t know where the fire originated or a cause of the blaze. ?Part of the problem (in finding a cause) is that we don?t know where the fire started.?

He said the investigation is continuing into the cause of the blaze. ?If we can?t determine it (the cause), we will have to call the state fire marshal in.?