Published: June 24, 2009 08:54 pm      

Early morning fire damages area home

A residence in Shady Oaks sustained extensive interior damage in an early morning fire Tuesday.

The Shady Oaks Volunteer Fire Department was able to confine the flames to a portion of the double-wide structure on County Road 1616.

SOVFD Captain Betty Wilson said the department was paged out at about 8:55 a.m. When the jumper unit arrived, the fire had spread from the laundry area to a bathroom and a bedroom on the south side of the house.

The residents of the house were not present when the fire broke out.

“The man was at work, and the woman had taken a child to the doctor,” Wilson said.

Firefighters were able to stop the flames from spreading to other areas of the house which sustained smoke and water damage. Shady Oaks Volunteer Fire Department extinguished the blaze by 11:16 a.m.

The Athens Fire Department was paged out for mutual aid and served as back-up but never came on the property.

“I was pleased with the performance of our fire department,” Wilson said. “Anytime you can save a trailer house, you’ve done well.”

The Henderson County Fire Marshal’s Office was called to help determine the cause of the fire. Investigator Shane Renberg said he did not believe the fire was of suspicious origin.

“We went out at the request of the fire department.” Renberg said. “We haven’t determined what started it yet.”