Fire Burns Two Houses at Same Time

Fire did significant damage to two neighboring houses in Homewood Subdivision in Effingham Saturday afternoon. No one was injured.

Firefighters were alerted at 3:35pm to respond to 907 and 905 South Glenwood Street. The homes are those of Charlie and Kathy Peters and of Nikki Ferris. There was speculation that a tire blowout somehow triggered the fire, but Effingham Fire Chief Joe Holomy said the cause has not been determined. Holomy is asking a representative of the State Fire Marshal's Office to help investigate the fire to find out the cause. While there are occasions when a fire at one house ignites another building, Holomy and Assistant Fire Chief Matt Kulesza agreed that they could not remember when they were fighting separate house fires at the same time.

Nikki Ferris, who lives at 905 Glenwood, said she saw the smoke from Starbucks. Nikki's daughter, Destiny, was at home and told us at the scene that she had just gotten up from a nap and saw what she first thought was dust. What she saw turned out to be smoke and when she opened her bedroom curtains on the south end of the house, she saw flames. Destiny got out of the house safely and also got three dogs inside out. They have their own pet plus care of other animals. Their cat suffered from smoke inhalation, but fire crews used their pet resuscitation device to give oxygen to the cat. The cat was taken to the vet, and is now reported doing well.

Holomy said the fire got into the attic of both homes. They were hampered in fighting the fire by live power lines in the backyard at 905 Glenwood so had to attack the blaze from the front. Due to the volume of calls about the fire, telecommunicators upgraded the call to a full still. Teutopolis firefighters responded to the scene and fought the fire in 907 Glenwood while Effingham firefighters handled the call in 905 Glenwood. Fire crews from Montrose and Watson staffed the Effingham fire stations while Effingham crews were at the fire scene.

Red Cross was called to assist the families since neither house is habitable. AmerenIllinois, Effingham City and Effingham County officers, and Abbott EMS were all on scene.