Firefighters had a busy Friday and Saturday last week, responding to three structure fires in under 36 hours, including a house that was built in the 1860’s.
The first fire Saturday morning was a fourplex, located just east of the Logan Tabernacle. The fire department was dispatched around 4 a.m., but firefighters said they had control over the fire by 9 a.m. Residents of the home are safe and accounted for, though some of them were woken up during the fire. One of these residents is Raymond Spanier. Spanier was asleep in the basement of the unit when a police officer knocked on his door.
“By the time I got to the door, he’d opened it and shined the light in my face and said ‘you gotta get out of here,’” Spanier said. “‘Okay what’s wrong?’ ‘The place is on fire’ oh, okay let’s go.”
Spanier walked out of his burning home with only a couple books and the clothes on his back, but he said he knows he’ll be fine.
“I know I’m going to be looked out for,” Spanier said. “I think they said God looks out for the stupid or something, so that’s my hope.”
The Logan Fire Department had a shift change when the call for another fire sent a fresh crew to the burning home on 200 West. Firefighters were there for hours, finally clearing the flames around 2:45 p.m.
Built in the 1860’s, this building was home to one of the first pioneers to come to the valley. The duplex has been a home to many families, including Julie Williams, who lived there for five years. Though she doesn’t live in the duplex anymore, she said she was heartbroken to see it destroyed.
“It’s a beautiful home,” Williams said. “It has so much historic value… the craftsmanship inside is just something that can’t be replaced.”
Though the cause of the fires is still being investigated, Fire Marshal Craig Humphreys said the cold could be to blame. Both of the homes that burned Saturday were over a century old, and Humphreys said the low temperatures may have put too much demand on the wiring of the not-modern buildings.