Fire claims home

An evening house fire battled by firemen in bitterly cold temperatures Tuesday night left a Lovell family without a home.

The Lovell Volunteer Fire Dept. was called to a blaze at 242 Pennsylvania Ave. in Lovell at 6:53 p.m. Tuesday, new Fire Chief Mike Jameson said. Jameson said Lovell Police Sgt. Roger Haney was at the scene when firemen arrived and had helped members of the family to safety with the south wing of the home afire and smoke filling the rest of the structure.

The home is owned by Scott and Keeli Savage, and Jameson said Keeli and one of the two boys were home at the time of the blaze but got out safely. Scott Savage was at work.

The fire started in the south wing of the house, and firemen used positive pressure to keep the fire in that room and push the flames out a window and door, Jameson said.

“It worked exactly how we wanted it to,” he said.

Jameson said 23 firemen responded to the call, many of them battling the frigid temperatures to fight the blaze with temperatures hovering around zero. The last truck headed back to the fire hall at 9:06 p.m., the chief said.

“We were trying to keep equipment and the lines from freezing up,” Jameson said. “The guys did a good job. We didn’t have anything freeze up.”

Firemen checked on the house from time to time during the night, but a neighbor called just after 5 a.m. Wednesday to report that the fire had rekindled. Firemen responded again, and Jameson said the fire had moved up into the attic, noting that the house has two ceilings, which complicated efforts to extinguish the blaze. Firemen took a vent off the roof to reach the fire above the second ceiling, he said. The re-ignition was fully extinguished by around 7 p.m., the chief said.

Jameson said firemen believe they know what started the fire Tuesday night, but he didn’t want to say anything until a fire investigator arrived from Cheyenne Wednesday.

By David Peck