2 suffer injuries in Christmas Eve house fire in Freeport
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Two people suffered minor injuries in a fire that damaged a Freeport house Saturday morning, Freeport’s fire chief said.
A mail carrier reported a porch on fire in the 500 block of Franklin Street around 8:30 a.m., Chief Ryan Sweeny said.
When firefighters arrived, Sweeny said the home’s residents and neighbors were using fire extinguishers to contain the fire, which he said was mostly on the outside of a basement door.
Residents were also shoveling snow on the fire to keep it from spreading.
“There was a little bit of fire extended inside the basement, but we were able to put the fire out pretty quick,” Sweeny said.
Sweeny said one person was checked at the scene for smoke inhalation, while another was checked for a hand burn. They were not taken to a hospital.
The fire caused minimal damage confined to an area around the basement door, Sweeny said.
The cause was under investigation, but is not believed to be suspicious, he said.
Firefighters were at the scene for about 90 minutes.
Sweeny said road conditions delayed the arrival of firefighters from other departments, and Franklin being a narrow, one-lane street makes getting equipment on it difficult, but those issues did not have much effect on responding to the fire.
The severe cold didn’t help, Sweeny said, but the chief there were no weather-related issues.