A pinched power cord is believed to have caused a fire that destroyed a home at 2456 Long St. Sunday morning, according to investigators.
Firefighters responded to the reported fire at 8:01 a.m. Two females and two males escaped the fire without injury, according to a Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District report.
The home was owned and occupied by William Roebuck, 57.
The fire caused an estimated $90,000 in damage, according to the SHFAD report.
Firefighters arrived to find the attached carport and left side of the house fully involved and the kitchen, which was attached to the carport, beginning to catch fire.
A male and two females were outside the residence when firefighters arrived, but a second male was still inside, said Battalion Chief Eli Harris in the report. The male was in a bedroom attempting to gather some clothes, and he appeared disoriented. Harris helped him exit the building.
Two vehicles caught fire, with the ignition in one of them shorting out and activating, causing the vehicle to move forward. Firefighters blocked the vehicle with a small log, extinguished the fire and cut the battery cable to prevent it from moving further.
“The occupants had been alerted by a neighbor in the adjacent apartments, who had stated that he could hear loud popping noises,” Harris said. “When he looked out from his upstairs apartment, he could see the carport fully involved with fire.”
“We’d probably been hearing it for a good 30 to 40 minutes,” said Bryan Percival, 30. “I thought it was somebody cleaning their windows shades. When it didn’t stop, I finally got a little worried.”
That’s when he went outside and saw the flames. He ran back into the apartment and told the woman he is staying with to grab her phone and call 9-1-1. Then he jumped the fence and ran to the burning house.
“I kept pounding on the door, trying to get somebody’s attention,” Percival said. He could hear a dog on the other side of the door.
He kept yelling at the top of his lungs, and he began to kick the door, he said. By that time, a male was trying to unlock the door. He opened the door, and wind wafted into the house.
He helped the occupants away from the home and asked if everyone was there, Percival said. The male said that another male had gone back in.
Percival said the smoke was too thick for him to go back in after him, so he stood by the door urging the man to come back outside. The first responders came, and he told them about the male still inside.
Investigators were unable to determine a definitive cause, Harris said.
The owner of the home told investigators that his son sometimes stays in an attached room that is not wired for power, Harris said. A heater in that room was wired to an extension cord that plugged into an outlet in the carport through a door.
The point of origin was believed to be near that door based on the deep charring of the structural wood closest to the floor in that area, Harris said. Several coils of extension cords were found there, with one section of wiring from the attached room running under a metal tool box full of tools in the carport.
It appeared to be pinched between the corner of the box and the concrete floor, Harris said. Investigators couldn’t trace that cord to an outlet because intense heat had destroyed the remaining wiring as it went further into the structure. The owner told investigators that the cord had been plugged into an outlet.
The occupants were able to retrieve some belongings from bedrooms, which were not damaged in the fire, following completion of the investigation.
Red Cross assisted the occupants with immediate basic needs following the fire and provided information about recovery services and disaster mental health services.
Sweet Home firefighters received assistance from Lebanon Fire District, with a total of seven vehicles and 20 personnel on scene.