Kenai house fire displaces family

A mother and her three children escaped a fire that sent flames roaring through the upper level of their single-family home in Kenai on Thursday night.

The Kenai Fire Department received a call reporting the fire at 8 p.m. and when they arrived to the scene at 8:04 p.m., two-thirds of the upper level of the home was engulfed in flames.

The fire destroyed the contents of much of the upper floor of the home and heat and smoke significantly damaged the interior of most of the home, but there was little structural damage. The mother and her three children escaped unharmed, said Kenai Fire Chief Mike Tilley.

The Kenai Fire Department has not yet made an estimate of the damages to the home, located at 505 Ash Ave. The fire was declared under control at 8:40 p.m. after two Kenai fire engines, one Kenai ambulance and one Nikiski fire engines had arrived.

The American Red Cross placed the family in a hotel and is providing them with clothing.

Tilley said split level homes, such as the Kenai home that burned Thursday night, are particularly vulnerable to heat and smoke damage because the upstairs cannot be closed off from the downstairs.

“There’s always significant heat and smoke damage (in split level homes),” he said. “There’s no way to contain the upstairs from the downstairs.”