Firefighters contain Gulpha Street fire
The Hot Springs Fire Department successfully contained a fire that engulfed a vacant residence on the south end of Baxter Plaza Saturday evening.
The residence at 134 Gulpha St. is surrounded by vacant structures like it. According to Charles Nicholson, HSFD’s shift commander during the fire, the department’s primary objective on Saturday was to keep the blaze within the property of its origin, as it could have easily spread to residences like it.
Carl Hawthorn, HSFD’s shift commander for Sunday, said that the department achieved its goal.
“They did a pretty good job of keeping it away from the structures next door,” Hawthorn said of the responding firefighters.
According to Hot Springs Fire Chief Ed Davis, the fire was reported at 6:16 p.m. Saturday. Nicholson said that the fire department initiated its own response, after firefighters observed smoke rising east of the Central Fire Station.
The Hot Springs Police Department and Entergy Arkansas Inc. also responded to the scene.
Nicholson said that the firefighters could tell that it was a house fire from a distance based on the color of the smoke that the residence was letting off.
Police blocked off the entire section of neighborhood surrounding the structure following the call. The thick smoke that the structure gave off moved one block south to Garden Street as the fire department battled the blaze for hours.
Through its hours of effort, firefighters managed to keep the fire from spreading to adjacent buildings. Hawthorn said that most of the firefighters had left the scene by 10:30 p.m. Saturday, none of whom had sustained any injuries during their efforts.
A few firefighters remained at the scene overnight as a precautionary measure.
Hawthorn said that the cause of the fire is unknown, and that an investigation into the initial cause is still ongoing.