By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson Fire Chief Steve Beer said an early Tuesday fire in Hutchinson can be attributed to the cold weather.
"The homeowners here had a cracked heat exchanger in their furnace yesterday," Beer said. "It looks like they plugged in additional space heaters to keep the place warm last night. The wiring couldn't handle that. It was some old knob and tube wiring just overheated and the wire gave way and actually started this fire."
The fire call came in at 5:43 a.m. Tuesday in the 200 block of West 11th. Three people were able to escape the fire. No one was hurt. Temperatures at the time were in the single digits.
"Conditions are tough on anybody, not just firefighters, but anybody that works outside, especially when you're dealing with water," Beer said. "It's just hard on equipment right now."
The fire department's people mover was on scene to allow firefighters a place to warm up.
"Our gear doesn't repel water," Beer said. "It's important to make sure we get these guys into our rehab bus and rehab them out and keep their body conditions in the right shape."
Some of the coldest nights in decades are inbound later this week over the weekend, so it's important that if you do need to use a space heater that it is not on while you are asleep and it is plugged into the wall to get help from the home circuit breaker and not plugged into an extension cord.