Fire destroys Somerton home

Firefighters from the Somerton/Cocopah Fire Department, with the assistance of several other area fire departments, extinguished a fire Tuesday night that destroyed a house, a carport, three vehicles, a small travel trailer and a nearby shed.

One firefighter from the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma Fire Department, however, received non-life threatening injuries while battling the blaze and was transported to Yuma Regional Medical Center for treatment.

Somerton/Cocopah Fire Department spokesman Robby Rodriguez said that at about 7 p.m. firefighters were dispatched to a possible house fire in the 200 Block of George Street. Once on scene, firefighters found the house, the carport and two cars fully engulfed in flames.

“While in route, heavy flames and smoke could be seen,” Rodriguez said. “We probably flowed about 20,000 gallons of water. That is how much flame we had on that lot. During the fire we had ammunition going off inside the home and propane tanks exploding in the rear of the lot.”

Five houses around the involved home were evacuated as a precaution. Rodriguez said firefighters were initially hampered in their efforts to extinguish the fire because they couldn't get to the breaker box to turn off the electricity and because a power line on the ground was arcing.

“We had an electrified fire and we couldn't put water on it,” Rodriguez said.

The radiant heat being put out by the house fire started a fire in the neighbor's storage shed, but it was quickly contained and extinguished.

An engine from the San Luis Fire Department and the MCAS Fire Department, were also assisting with protecting the structures in the rear of the house. An engine from the Yuma Fire Department that had been dispatched to a brush fire on the East Cocopah Reservation also responded to the fire after extinguishing the brush fire.

James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854. Find him on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/YSJamesGilbert or on Twitter @YSJamesGilbert.