From NewsChannel 9: A house fire killed a person in Benton overnight, in what the Polk County fire chief calls a "freak accident." We
From NewsChannel 9: A house fire killed a person in Benton overnight, in what the Polk County fire chief calls a “freak accident.”
We had a crew on scene Wednesday.
West Polk County Fire Chief Keith Jeske confirmed the deadly fire happened at a home on Town Creek Road.
“I woke up to flames above the trees.”
That’s what one of the neighbors who lives near Towns Creek Road posted on social media.
It was an emotional morning for those in this part of Polk County.
“We received a call at 4:36 this morning for a structure fire that was entrapping,” says Chief Jeske.
But it got worse.
“Within a matter of about six minutes. The fire was so advanced it was already ventilating itself through the roof,” Chief Jeske says.
Neighbors told us they woke up to loud booms and flames above their houses.
But despite being in a severe drought, Chief Jeske says that has nothing to do with these flames.
“Not knowing the origin of the fire… this was not something that was to due to any drought issues or anything like that. We had plenty of water supply. Everything was in place, it was just a freak accident,” he says.
But this dispatch audio from Broadcastify
“All I heard in the background was him talking and alarms were going off.”
Describes a different scene from when the firefighters arrived.
“We didn’t hear any smoke detectors going off while we were there,” says Chief Jeske.
It took help from 2 other counties, with 2 more on standby, before the fire was under control.
But not without a tragic discovery
“They were unable to locate the second occupant due to the fire itself and the heavy smoke,” says Chief Jeske.
Neighbors say an elderly couple lived there, but the fire chief wasn’t ready to give us a name or age of the person who died.
