Sunday Morning Fire Damages Home Under Construction

Family was planning on moving in in two weeks

Tools

By Kate McPherson
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Story Created: Apr 2, 2012 at 8:14 AM AKDT

Story Updated: Apr 2, 2012 at 8:14 AM AKDT

ANCHORAGE - The new owners of a house in Downtown Anchorage have delayed their house warming plans after it caught on fire Sunday morning causing significant damage.

The family was planning to move in within the next two weeks.

Fire crews were able to get the blaze under control before the fire spread to other homes.

The fire department was called to this vacant home on Coffey Lane just after 9 Sunday morning after a driver in the area saw smoke.

Captain Sean Fredenhagen of the Anchorage Fire Department said, “The fire spread from an office area into walls and up into the roof, so we're using tools like chain saws and axes to open up the roof to get at that hidden fire that's in the insulation and the walls."

The new owner, Peter Nosek, wasn't home at the time "One of my best friends who moved in next door called me to say the new house was on fire, and of course I thought it was an April Fool’s joke coming over, expecting to see balloons or something like that, and was met by the fire department," he said.

It took fire crews about an hour to put the blaze out.

"When it starts spreading into the walls we have to start looking in other rooms, going into the garage and in this case the fire spread through the wall and up into the roof over the garage so we had to go into the garage and get up into the attic space and start finding that hidden fire," Fredenhagen said.

An early damage estimate is up around $200,000.

"We were hoping to paint the kids’ rooms next week with some blue and flowers and move in and have a house warming party in 10 days,” Nosek said.

The family is now rescheduling their house warming party for later in the summer after repairs are completed.

The cause of the fire is still unknown at this time.
 

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