Three Colusa residents displaced after fire

Three people were displaced after a house fire burned a duplex in Colusa early on Thursday morning. No one was harmed in the fire, and the house is likely salvageable, Colusa City Fire Captain Logan Conley said.

“It’s going to take some work – the frame itself is still in good shape… There is some water damage that will be one of the things to take care of as well,” Conley said.

While the cause of the fire is still under investigation, Fire Chief Randy Dunn stated that arson had been ruled out.

“We’re leaning towards accidental origin. It appears to be undetermined, but we’re still looking at some things,” Dunn said. “There is no evidence of arson or anything like that.”

Conley said that most of the damage to the structure was to the eastern residence of the duplex.

At about 3:50 AM, Thursday, June 30, firefighters were dispatched to a multi-family residence at 346 Oak Street. They arrived to find the three residents who live in the duplex standing outside.

“Everyone was out when we got there,” Conley said.

Sac River Fire and Williams Fire were dispatched to provide mutual aid, and the three agencies were able to put out the fire, but not without some challenges.

Both Conley and Dunn said that the older house’s construction – namely, its balloon framing – presented some difficulties for firefighters.

In houses with balloon-frame construction, there is greater potential for the fire to spread both horizontally and vertically. Conley noted that getting access to the attic space to fight the fire was particularly challenging.

“Those houses are hard to burn, but they’re hard to put out, too,” Dunn said. “We did have our difficulties, but we used outside resources from Sac River and Williams, which was really helpful. We needed the manpower.”

Conley said that Colusa City Fire contacted American Red Cross and that they came out to provide help to the displaced individuals. ■