DATE:
PRESS RELEASE
To: NEWSROOM
For Immediate Release
Contact: Asst. Chief Brian Crawford: 673-6652 or cell: 455-2609

February 8, 2007 - Shreveport Family Escapes Morning Fire

Shreveport family escapes fire

A Shreveport family escaped a fire that caused heavy damage to a portion of their Allendale home just after 9:00 a.m. this morning. Shreveport firefighters were dispatched to 3405 Darien Street and arrived to find heavy black smoke and flames billowing from the west side of the residence. It took a dozen firefighters 30 minutes to bring the fire under control.

Resident Barbara Fuller, 50, her brother and her daughter’s one-year-old were all in the home at the time of the fire. Fuller told fire investigators that they smelled smoke in the home and went to investigate. They opened the door to her daughter’s room and saw fire around a space heater atop a stereo speaker. Fuller said that she tries to smother the fire with blankets but flames soon engulfed the room and the family fled.

The official cause of the fire has not been determined but investigators are leaning to an accidental origin that involves the space heater. There was no other heat source in the room at the time of the incident. Damage was listed at $25,000. The daughter told investigators that the heater was off when she left this morning. The Shreveport Fire Department cautions against ever leaving an operating space heater unattended even for short period of time. ###