The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is investigating an apartment fire in the 1000 block of Lon Vera Drive in the Murphy area of Fenton on April 21.
At 9:49 p.m., the High Ridge Fire Protection District got a call about the apartment fire, and the duty officer, who was first on the scene, arrived at 9:53, Fire Marshal Ron Tisius said.
“He (the duty officer) saw a small fire in the window and moderate smoke coming from the apartment,” Tisius said.
A neighbor had earlier broken out the window and used water and a fire extinguisher through the window to try to put out the fire. The apartment was one of four in the building.
No one was in the apartment when the fire broke out, and by the time firefighters arrived on the scene, the rest of the apartment building residents had already “evacuated themselves,” Tisius said.
When the pumper truck arrived, firefighters pulled a hose and forced entry through the front door of the apartment, Tisius said.
They found materials still on fire on the stove and surrounding the stove and extinguished the fire with water, he said.
“They knocked it down pretty quickly,” Tisius said.
The fire caused moderate damage to the kitchen, and firefighters had to pull down a portion of the ceiling in the kitchen to check the attic and determined the fire was out. They then monitored each of the other three apartments for carbon monoxide and ventilated the apartments that needed it, he said.
Residents were then allowed to return to their homes, Tisius said.
The cause of the fire was undetermined and is still under investigation.
Firefighters from the Fenton Fire Protection District assisted with the call.