Detached garage fire damages home in Rochester

A home just east of Lake Manitou in Rochester is to be temporarily boarded up following a garage fire this afternoon. 

Firefighters were dispatched to the home at 1615 Mitchell Drive when a detached garage on the property caught fire around 1 p.m.

"By the time we got there, the trees to the east were on fire and the yard was on fire," Rochester Fire Chief T.J. DuBois said. 

He added that firefighters had to run hose line to a hydrant at an alley between Arrowhead Drive and Ewing Road, nearly 500 feet away, due to fire surrounding a hydrant on the property. 

It took about a half-hour for the fire to be brought under control, but not before it had spread a couple feet into the home.

Firefighters remained on scene for another two hours, checking for extension using a thermal imaging camera to ensure no residual heat remained that could reignite and removing smoldering debris in the process.

"We requested it be boarded up because it's going to have to have some rehab done to it to make it livable," DuBois said. 

A firefighter who sustained a minor back injury at the scene was treated at Woodlawn Hospital. He was released and back at the station later in the day. Two occupants were safely outside upon firefighters' arrival, and no injuries to animals were reported. 

An unextinguished cigarette is suspected as the case of the fire. 

"He was in the garage when it happened and said he thought he had put his cigarette out," DuBois said of one of the occupants. "I can't rule that in or out 100 percent. All I can say is that it started in the garage, without a doubt, and spread from there."

As a result of some, DuBois additionally wished to remind the public that driving over fire hoses, especially when under pressure, is extremely dangerous. 

"It normally ends catastrophically if you decide to drive over and that hose bursts," he said. "Backing up and going the other way would be ideal."