URBANA - Items packed on top of an electrical cord sparked a fire that damaged a north Urbana home Friday evening.

Urbana Fire Chief Mike Dilley said firefighters found smoke in the home of Lesley Deem at 1205 Division Ave. when they arrived about 6:15 p.m.

"The guys couldn't get to the fire. They had to crawl over stuff to get into the bedroom," he said.

Deem had returned home to find smoke in the house. Dilley described it as a "little fire that hadn't gotten going enough." He said it could have been much worse if it had gone undetected due to the amount of items packed into the small one-story house.

"Excessive storage of combustibles not only contributes to the causes of fire, it contributes to the spread and it's unsafe for the people living there and a hazard for firefighters getting in to fight the fire," Dilley said.

Dilley said firefighters were at the house about 90 minutes.

He estimated the damage at $5,000.

Dilley likened the circumstances to what Champaign firefighters encountered  Wednesday fighting a fire at 1209 Wilshire Court, C. Fire destroyed the home of Albert and Phoebe Feng. Because of the amount of items inside, firefighters had to have a track hoe brought in to move the layers of items to get to the fires below.