Fire destroys Lee County house, space heaters to blame

LEE COUNTY, Ia. (WGEM) - Only a shell of a house stands after firefighters spent an hour and half putting out a fire Monday that likely was sparked by space heaters.Firefighters say the renters were heating the home with four space heaters plugged into extension cords.

"Too many space heaters on stuff gets the wiring hot and it's not a real safe way to be heating your home," Denmark Fire Chief Neal Gathers said.

Gathers says his firefighters and the Weaver Fire Department were called to 1950 295th Ave., north of Fort Madison, at 3:40 a.m. Gathers said when crews arrived the two-story home was fully-engulfed on the north side of the home, with fire coming out of windows on both floors.

A mother and daughter were in the home when the fire started, and the family dog woke them up.The women made it out okay, but it was a close call and a reminder of how dangerous space heaters can be.

"It's not a good idea," Quincy electrician Steve Edgar said. "In fact most people are not aware that anything with a heating element, such as a space heater, usually take considerably more energy than what they think it does, so it's very easy to overload a circuit."

Edgar says the age of the house could have added to the problem because many older homes have outdated wiring.He advises that anyone using a space heater does not plug it into an extension cord.

"Extension cords are meant to be temporary at best, and when you have something that takes as much energy as a space heater it's not a good idea to leave them there permanently," Edgar said.

"I'd say we had the fire under control in about an hour and a half," Gathers said. "It took a little longer. The cold weather makes things a little tougher but everything went really smooth today. We didn't have any trucks freeze up, so we were lucky on that and nobody got hurt, so that was the most important thing."

Gathers said the mother and daughter went to a family member's home in West Burlington, Iowa.The house's owner says he does not plan to rebuild.

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Fire destroys Lee County house, space heaters to blame