Garden hose keeps fire from spreading
Middletown man uses it to stave off flames approaching his home.
William Keith MIDDLETOWN — was in the shower Wednesday morning when his wife yelled for him to get outside immediately.
Keith said he put on clothes and walked outside. He smelled some smoke, but didn’t see any flames so we went back inside.
A few minutes later, he said, he walked into his backyard and saw the house next door on fire.
“It was blazing,” Keith said.
Firefighters responded to the vacant house with heavy flames coming from it in the 700 block of Elsmere Street on Wednesday around 6 a.m.
Keith said the home had been vacant for about a week. Keith grabbed a garden hose and tried to keep his own house from catching fire, he said.
There was significant interior damage to the house and the back of the exterior, said officials with the Middletown Fire Department. A damage estimate was not available Wednesday afternoon.
The heat from the fire melted some of the siding on Keith’s house and garage, he said.
The fire did not spread to any nearby homes and no one was injured, said Middletown fire officials on scene.
Middletown and Monroe fire investigators were on the scene much of the morning, trying to determine what caused the fire. Middletown’s arson dog, Scottie, was also called in to investigate.
Keith said he spoke to the landlord and was told the house recently was rented.
He said he had never had “any trouble” out of the neighbors.
“It’s sad what has happened,” he said. “The good news is we didn’t get burned up.”