Last Thursday morning’s destructive Wade’s Addition house fire, reported in last week’s SILVER WORLD, has been determined to be caused by defective electric wiring.
According to Lake City Fire Chief Justin Thompson, the determination is the result of an inspection the day following the blaze, Friday, May 15, by Kevin Crawford, an investigator based out of Grand Junction with Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control.
As reported last week, the Wildflower Cabins’ rental cabin destroyed in the blaze was of older vintage, dating to construction in 1954, with old electric wiring.
The cabin was unoccupied at the time and was being readied for summer use, Investigator Crawford determination being that an electric motor seized and caused the fire as the result of a light and ceiling fan which were left on over night.
Since our report on the fire last week, SILVER WORLD has learned that an unsung hero assisting in alerting neighbors to the early morning fire on Thursday was Wade’s Addition resident Jim Gowdy.
Gowdy, who lives on Park Street within a half block of Wildflower Cabins, apparently sighted the escalating flames from both the cabin and an adjacent spruce tree which caught fire, and dashed across the street to alert neighbors prior to arrival of the fire department. At the across-the-street Rightsell residence, he banged on windows, also alerting residents of the Waddington house which is just across the alleyway from the burning building.
