Firefighters respond to Pleasant Plain house fire

PLEASANT PLAIN — A house in Pleasant Plain suffered a fire last week, forcing the occupant to move out.

The Brighton and Fairfield fire departments, along with Brighton First Responders and CARE Ambulance responded to a fire at 9:53 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 16 at 403 W. St. in Pleasant Plain. Brighton Fire Chief Bill Farmer said the home’s only occupant, Susan Rutledge, was inside at the time of the fire and was able to escape unharmed.

Twelve Brighton firefighters and about eight from Fairfield put out the fire. Farmer said firefighters had to cut out the floor of the modular home’s bedroom and one of its bathrooms to extinguish the burning embers underneath.

“I think the fire had been burning a long time even before [the occupant] realized it,” Farmer said. “There were embers burning that we couldn’t put out until we cut the floor out. There’s a good chance that, if we hadn’t done that, the fire would have rekindled. It was such a tight space that we couldn’t get water down there.”

Farmer said the home suffered a large degree of smoke damage, and will need some electrical work and a new furnace. He thought it might be salvageable if those repairs were made, but that would be up to its owner. Farmer said he didn’t know the woman who lived there, and she said she has no family in the area, but friends came by after the fire to help her. Farmer said the Red Cross was called to assist her, too.

Farmer said he believes the cause of the fire likely stemmed from an electrical malfunction in the furnace due to how the wiring appeared upon investigation.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com