No Injuries Reported Following House Fire

DeLand, FL - A DeLand resident and two dogs escape an early morning fire unscathed. Units—which included crews from DeLand, Orange City and Volusia County Fire Rescue—were dispatched to the home off of Orange Avenue after receiving reports of smoke coming from the roof around 7:40 Monday morning (October 19th). When units arrived, they found a fire in the second floor that seemed to have been coming from the area of a chimney. Per a release from the DeLand Fire Department, the fire extended into the second-floor walls and roof making it difficult to find and extinguish. It took units around 45 minutes to finally get the fire under control, which was followed by a considerable amount of overhaul and mop-up once it was extinguished. A resident and two dogs were home at the time, but none of them were injured as a result of the fire. The initial investigation found that the resident was using the fireplace when the fire started. Based on the location of the initial burned area, it seems that the fire started from a breach somewhere in the chimney. This allowed the fire to get into the walls and extend upward into the second floor and roof area. The American Red Cross was contacted to provide services for the resident, as the house as been deemed uninhabitable as of this time.