August 31, 2015 - Firemen battled with a triple-house fire early on Monday, August 31, 2015 on CR 2025. When the Center Fire Department arrived on scene at 5:11am at the residence of Duane Collins located at 2852 CR 2050 (Africa Road), two houses were completely engulfed in flames while a third was just beginning to ignite.
The firemen quickly began dragging hose and and proceeded to fighting the fire at different ends of the property. As the firemen worked at extinguishing the fire, they focused a lot of attention on the third house to ignite as it was not fully engulfed like the others.
While firemen sprayed water on the front of the house, another group of firemen gained entry to the rear of the building. Once the majority of that house was extinguished, the proceeded to attacking the surrounding houses and a car with water. The Shelbyville Volunteer Fire Department arrived on scene with a tanker truck to provide additional water.
Half of a tree fell on the house to the front of the property during the fire; however, no firemen were in its path as it fell. A fourth house on the property remained untouched by flames once the fires were extinguished.
According to neighbors across the street from the residence, at the time Collins discovered what had been his grandmother's house was on fire at the back of the property, he evacuated his house which was at the front of the property and called for help. When firemen arrived, Collins was at another neighbor's residence up the road. The neighbor's also stated the third house which was igniting had previously been Collins' aunt's house.
The two houses that initially caught on fire appeared to be a total loss, and the third house received considerable fire and water damage.
Shelbyville VFD returned to the station at 6:30am and the Center Fire Department returned to the station at 8:20am.
