Two houses lost during fire in Humboldt
HUMBOLDT, Tenn. – Multiple fire departments responded to a fire in a West Tennessee town.
The fire resulted in what fire department officials told us on scene were two houses, both considered to be total losses.
Thursday, the Humboldt Fire Department responded to a large house fire at the corner of 17th and Osborne Street in Humboldt.
According to Assistant Chief Leroy Kail, when they arrived he said the fire was fully involved, meaning the house was fully ablaze.
“Fully engulfed in flames. Just the carport at the time, but it went up into the attic and as it got into the attic, it moved to the next house,” Kail said.
Kail said when they arrived on scene, they immediately found a water supply. Once they established the supply, they started applying water to the fire.
Because of the size of the fire, Kail said he requested the help of multiple nearby fire departments, including the Milan Fire Department, Medina Fire Department and Gibson County Fire Department.
“We’re still short. We still need to hire some people. We’ve got some new rookies, so we needed some extra help,” Kail said.
And extra help came in an interesting way. Not only did other fire departments respond, but also a few retired firefighters.
On the scene, former Humboldt Fire Chief Chester Owens and former Captain Robert Carruthers hurried to the scene and picked up hoses as well.
Kail said the Humboldt Police Department got in on the action also.
“They were doing a SWAT class here today and there was probably about 20 of them. So they all come in and they were able to search the second house for us, and us not have to send in somebody in. So we were lucky enough to not have to do that,” Kail said.
According to Assistant Chief Kail, no one was inside the house at the time of the fires resulting in no injuries.
Unfortunately, a house cat was killed in the fire.
The Humboldt Fire Department is investigating the cause of the fire.
Find more news out of Gibson County here.
