Chimney fire escalates to house fire in minutes

Ashland, Ore. — An Ashland chimney fire quickly escalated to a house fire at a rural residence off of Ashland Loop Road and Glenview Drive Tuesday afternoon.

The rough terrain above Lithia Park made it difficult for fire crews to reach the incident, but Ashland Fire & Rescue controlled suppressed the fire in a matter of minutes. Fortunately, no one was hurt and the residents are expected to return home after water and smoke damage is repaired.

Jackson County Fire District 5 was also on scene with two engines, making a total of four engines on the scene of the fire.

Although the chimney is assumed to be the fire’s point of origin, the residents claim they follow fire safety protocol like sweeping the chimney annually. The fire is believed to have started from old chimney pipes that have not been maintained in years, the house itself is considered to be an old structure.

“This is a thirty-plus-year-old house, why all of a sudden the chimney just led the fire, instead of going up through the chimney to get out through the roof space, hard to say. They do maintain - they said - they maintain the chimney every year and sweep it out,” Chris Chambers Division Chief at Ashland Fire & Rescue said.

The high winds were also a concern for Chief Chambers as firefighters had to climb the roof in an attempt to suppress the fire and the higher the winds the more probability the fire has of spreading.

"Nobody was hurt in this fire. Luckily the residents were home and were able to call it in quickly, but then evacuated the house like we recommend everyone to do when there is a fire in their house," Chief Chambers said.

The fire spread quickly though the chimney pipes and made its way to the roof space making flames on the roof visible to nearby neighbors.

"Firefighters were able to get fire on to the roof and then make entry into the house and put the fire out from inside the house," Chief Chambers said.

Chambers said it had the potential to be a bigger fire, but they had the opportunity to catch it early.