October 1, 2009 - West Shreveport Family Narrowly Escapes the Flames of a House Fire

Faulty Space Heater and no Smoke Alarm Device is the recipe for endangering lives

At 2:14 a.m. this morning, the Shreveport Fire Department responded to a single-story wood-framed house fire in the 3400 block of Jackson Street in the Queensborough community. The occupant, a young mother of two small children under the age of five, saw flames on the curtains behind a space heater in the room where her children were sleeping. She immediately escaped the fire with her family and called 9-1-1 from a neighboring home.

When the responding fire crews arrived on scene at 2:18 a.m., they reported heavy smoke and flames billowing from the windows on the west side of the home. It took firefighters less than 10 minutes to extinguish the fire. The fire’s damage was contained the bedroom and the hallway.

Shreveport’s Fire Department Investigator Chris Robinson classified this fire as accidental because it was caused by the spliced power cord of the space heater igniting a curtain which rested upon it. “This family was fortunate to escape the situation with their lives having no working smoke alarm in the home,” said Investigator Robinson.