ASHTON — There were no injuries and a home was a total loss after a structure fire on Wednesday afternoon in rural Ashton, Rochelle Fire Department Captain Zach Prewett said.
RFD and the Ogle-Lee Fire Protection District stations of Hillcrest, Flagg Center, Creston and Steward were called at 2 p.m. to 8423 E. Illinois Route 38 to assist the Ashton Fire Protection District with a structure fire. Other mutual aid organizations that responded included Franklin Grove, Dixon City, Dixon Rural, Amboy Fire and the Ogle County Sheriff’s Office, Prewett said.
“A passerby saw the flames and went and alerted the occupant of the home and got him out and called the fire in,” Prewett said. “The house was fully involved and flames were going through the roof when firefighters arrived on scene. It was completely a defensive operation and no firefighters were sent inside of the house. Most of the fire was out when I left at 4:15 p.m. and they were calling in an excavator for overhaul work and were going to work on extinguishing secondary fires.”
The structure fire reached the third alarm level. Prewett said he was unaware of any injuries to occupants or first responders, and the two-story home was a total loss with a garage on the property also seeing damage.
The total cost of the damage and the cause of the fire have yet to be determined, Prewett said. The state fire marshal was on the scene on Wednesday.
Firefighters battled high winds in a rural area on Wednesday afternoon.
“The concerns we had were high winds and no access to water on site,” Prewett said. “We had to truck water in and high winds advanced the fire once it broke through the roof of the house.”
