Small Town News

Extremely hot blaze destroys unoccupied structure at Top of the World

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The Superior Fire Department was the first at the scene on the evening of Sept. 22 when a fire destroyed an unoccupied residential building at Top of the World.

No one was hurt in the blaze, according to Superior Fire Operations Chief Todd Pryor, who said he assumed command of the firefighting operation when Superior arrived at the location. One person was evacuated from the structure, which is located in the 53000 block of Oat Street, he said.

The Top of the World community is located east of Superior between the town and the Miami-Globe area. Pryor said the community there has no fire department. Superior was responding to the call that came in at approximately 6:20 p.m. that evening under the aegis of "mutual aid" with the Miami Fire Department and Ken-yon Fire District also responding.

Pryor said the structure, which he described as somewhat "historical" in nature was burning heavily when Superior arrived on the scene. There was a need to keep the fire from moving to other buildings.

"When we got there, there was nothing left of the building," he said. "It was completely engulfed, extremely hot."

He said it proved too slow to try to use what water there is from Top of the World so water tenders went back and forth all day bringing in water. A contractor working on the highway dedicated a tender also to fighting the fire, which accounted for 6000 gallons of water added to the battle to contain the blaze.

The fire was extinguished at approximately 10 p.m. without having spread to other buildings, Pryor said. However, it rekindled on and off during the next day and had to be put out again, he said, possibly due to items such as stacks of old newspapers in the house that smoldered continuously. ~ Cindy Tracy



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