Fire destroys home near Jal
Levi Hill/News-Sun
The cause of a fire that demolished an uninhabited home near Jal last week remains undetermined thanks to the extensive fire damage the structure sustained.
The home, located at the corner of Adrian Nieto and Willis Road northeast of Jal, caught fire sometime after 5 a.m. Nov. 30.
Jal Fire Chief John Moody was first on scene and said the home was fully engulfed when he arrived shortly before 6 a.m.
“The owner said he left for work around 5:10 a.m. and it wasn’t on fire then. We got toned out at 5:41 a.m.,” Moody said. “We didn’t even go inside. The roof was already beginning to collapse in when we arrived.”
The home, which was supposed to have no power going to it, had been uninhabited for some years but owner Kent Willis said he was using some rooms in the building for storage.
Moody said there was power coming to the breaker box on the home, but all breakers were in the “off” position, making an electrical short an unlikely cause for the blaze.
“The interior was so bad there was no way to determine a point of ignition,” Moody said. “As of now we are classifying the cause of this one as ‘undetermined.’”
Willis said Xcel Energy told him that the power had been cut to the building, which sits adjacent to his home. However, he said when firefighters began spraying the structure electricity arced from the line going to the home.
“There was not supposed to be any power to that house,” Willis said. “Xcel had told me it was terminated and they were going to take the meter out.”
He said he saw nothing unusual the morning of the fire except two sand-hauler semi trucks parked across the road in a wide pullout, something common for the area.
“I have been told some of the sand truckers will do their speed and stuff in a place if they are doing their drugs,” he said. “But both doors were shut and I didn’t see any lights or anything when I left. Twenty minutes later I get a phone call from my wife and she tells me it is burning.”
Willis said he had some knife-making equipment, display cases and engraving machines stored in the building and estimates the value of the loss at about $20,000-$30,000. He said he purchased the home and the land in 2005 for $20,000.
“I was going to put my knife shop in that building. That was my plan to start doing that next year,” he said. “I don’t know how I’m going to clean this up. I had a guy quote me $2,500-$3,500 depending on if there is asbestos still in there.”
