ALTON – The importance of proper fire protection was never more apparent than what occurred in an electrical fire at 711 Riverview Drive.
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Firefighters received a call from a woman who was at the home at the time the fire broke out and a notification from an alarm system. Within a matter of a few minutes, the Alton Fire Department was on the scene and the firefighters made a quick hit, Deputy Chief Mark Harris said, extinguishing the fire.
The call came into the Alton Fire Department at 5:31 p.m. on Thursday. Battalion Chief Rob Franke and his firefighters were quick to attack the flames in the basement and shortly after extinguished the fire.
Harris and Franke both concluded the quick response helped protect the beautiful, historic Alton home along the river bluffs.
“The fire was contained to a small area,” Harris said. “The rule of thumb that a fire doubles in size every minute. Battalion Chief Rob Franke was first on the scene and when doing a 360 assessment, he looked in the basement window and could see flames underneath him. The firefighters took an attack line and hit it quickly.”
Harris said it is good the firemen contained the fire when they did because it was starting to run up the walls of the utility room. If the fire would have continued much further, the home may not have been saved.
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