A Seymour man feels fortunate it was just $22,000 in damages to his house after it caught fire early Wednesday morning.
At 4:29 a.m., the Seymour Fire Department responded to a call by Logan Oakes, 26, that his house at 405 Jackson St. was ablaze.
Oakes, who works as a history teacher at Crothersville High School, said a noise outside his window woke him up and alerted him to the situation.
"I was asleep and heard a popping sound that I thought was a firework going off, which was weird," Oakes said. "I got up and looked out my bedroom window, and the building on my neighbor’s property was smoking."
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Oakes, a Crothersville native, said he then went to his living room and saw a power line had fallen on the ground and was on fire.
He called 911, and after grabbing some of his belongings, including his future wedding ring, Oakes fled the residence.
Oakes said the fire department was there by the time he was out of the house.
"Because of the fire department getting there so quickly, the house was spared, and the only damage was to one of the bedrooms," he said. "My studio room is pretty well destroyed, but I consider that a win for the situation."
Seymour Fire Chief Brad Lucas said the fire actually started in a detached garage owned by Barry Sage at 704 S. Walnut St.
Lucas said when firefighters arrived, the garage was engulfed, and the fire had extended to Oakes’ home, which he rents from his father.
It took about two hours to put the fire out with all of the fire department’s staff and equipment in service at the residence, Lucas said.
"The hard thing was that it extended into the house," Lucas said. "We got into the attic and found some embers there. They had to pull some ceiling down. They were there for a little over two hours."
When Oakes went back into the house, he expected much worse damage than he saw.
Right now, the cause of the fire remains unknown.
"We believe it was accidental, but we don’t have an exact cause of it yet," Lucas said. "We think the downed power line was a result of the fire. We called Duke (Energy) to the scene because of that."
Lucas said there is $2,500 in damage to the garage and $22,000 to the house.
"It could have been much worse. We could’ve lost the entire house," he said.