A fire early Monday morning (June 11) that severely damaged a house in the 800 block of Third Street is under investigation, De Soto Fire Chief Craig Block said.
“The house was vacant. There was no electric to it. The fire is suspicious,” Block said. “We called in the state Fire Marshal to investigate.”
The De Soto Fire Department got a call about the fire at the older, two-story home at 5:17 a.m., and firefighters arrived on the scene at 5:24 a.m., he said.
“When the first truck arrived, fire was showing on almost every side of the building,” Block said.
He said the fire was difficult to fight, but firefighters attacked it with hoses and had the blaze under control in about an hour.
“The fire was in the walls and there was a lot of trash inside the house that hindered firefighting operations,” Block said.
Because of the heat and the work involved to overhaul the building and make sure the fire was out, a second alarm was struck to bring in more firefighters, Block said.
He said the home was for sale, and he believes it had been repossessed and belonged to a bank.
Block said he didn’t think the building was salvageable.
“It’s not livable and most likely will have to be torn down,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to be repairable.”
Firefighters were on the scene nearly three hours with the last unit going back into service at about 8:10 a.m. However, fire officials assisting with the investigation were on the scene until 10 a.m., Block said.
The De Soto Rural, Dunklin, Hematite, Hillsboro, Jefferson R-7 and Goldman fire protection districts and the Herculaneum and Festus fire departments helped with the call, as did the Valle Ambulance District.