(Red Oak, Iowa)  – Fire Oak firefighters were called to a residential structure fire early this (Tuesday) morning. According to Fire Chief John Bruce, the page went out at around 12:46-a.m. for the residence at 101 W. Reed Street, where a resident awoke to the smell of smoke, and located the front porch on fire. The home’s occupants used a fire extinguisher to diminish the fire until Red Oak Fire personnel could arrive on scene.

Chief Bruce said the Elliott and Stanton Fire Departments were also paged, but they were soon told to disregard, as first arriving Fire Dept personnel located a small fire contained to the front porch area. Firefighters verified that all occupants had been evacuated and the fire was quickly extinguished.

Fire damage, according to the Chief, was contained to the front porch area. He said that area is also where the occupants smoke. Discarded smoking materials were located in the immediate area, and the suspected cause of the fire is discarded smoking materials igniting dried vegetation under the front porch. The fire officially remains under investigation at this time. There were no injuries reported during the incident.

Photo from the Red Oak FD Facebook page.

Assisting Red Oak Fire at the scene, was: The Red Oak Police Department; The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office; and Montgomery County Communications Center. The property owner(s) were identified as: McIntyre Properties,LLC – Council Bluffs; M.D. Consier, Trustees – Portland, Oregon.