Cause of house fire under investigation
UPDATED 8:30 a.m.
URBANA — A house fire Wednesday night on Urbana's northeast side is under investigation by the MABAS (the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System) fire investigation team.
Firefighters were called to a one-story house at 203 G.H. Baker Drive in rural Urbana at 6:12 p.m. Wednesday after the resident, Ann Lacy, returned home and discovered smoke in the house.
Eastern Prairie Fire Department firefighters, with help from the Carroll Fire Department, had the fire under control within minutes.
Eastern Prairie Chief Mike Kobel said the fire started in an office, which was formerly a garage.
"They lost quite a bit in the office area," Kobel said, adding that Lacy's husband, Daniel Keding, is a folk singer and a storyteller and that the walls of the office were covered with certificates and accolades for him.
Kobel said there was heavy smoke in the office that permeated the house, killing the couple's dog. The dog was found in the kitchen, he said.
Lacy told firefighters she had left a candle burning in the office. Kobel was going to return to the house to look around some more and talk to Keding, who was out of town Wednesday, before deciding for certain if that was the cause.
"It was primarily his den so I want to get a feel for how things were laid out," said Kobel.
Kobel said he was not ready to put a damage estimate on the fire but said the house is not liveable. Lacy was staying with friends nearby, he said.
I think they are calling it that, or making that assumption because part of the neighborhood is "county" in that City of Urbana police, fire, do not respond to house which are not annexed. Some are annexed and get city services, others not. But it's not a rural neighborhood--pretty conveniently located, actually!
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