Whiting home ‘a total loss’ following Sunday blaze
By Brandi Makuski
A Whiting home is a total loss following a Sunday afternoon fire.
Metro Fire—units from Stevens Point, Plover, and Hull—spent nearly four hours on Jan. 19 battling what Plover Fire Chief Mark Deaver called “a stubborn fire” at 901 Jacobson St. in Whiting that left the home in ruins.
No one was injured in the blaze.
Flames were visible from the roof when crews arrived at 4:20 p.m., Deaver said. Firefighters were seen spraying the flames, which flared back up several times, on three sides of the home and the roof for over an hour.
A resident in the home saw sparks from electric lines in her backyard, Deaver said, and she quickly left for a neighbor’s house to call 911.
“When we got there, the fire was pretty involved,” Deaver said, adding the home had recently been remodeled, with a new roof built over an existing roof. “That void made it tough; you can’t get to the fire from the inside and you can’t get to it from the outside.”
Crews cut a hole in the new roof from above, but soon the trusses began to fail and the roof became compromised, forcing firefighters to the ground.
The fire was “pretty much knocked down” after a little more than an hour, he said. Crews remained on the scene until about 8 p.m.
Deaver said the resident was taken by family members who lived in the area.
The Portage Co. Sheriff’s Office and Wisconsin Public Service were also on the scene. A Park Ridge Fire unit was temporarily stationed at the Plover Fire Department to handle any additional calls received.