Colfax home destroyed by fire

A home on the 200 block of Thorn Street in Colfax was destroyed by a fire that started Saturday afternoon and burned through the night.

Colfax Fire Department Chief Michael Chapman said smoke was billowing out of the eaves of the one-story home with a daylight basement when firefighters arrived about 2 p.m. They quickly knocked down the flames on the main floor but the fire had reached the attic and was burning within the walls of the older home.

Chapman noted that because the home was built with balloon framing and lath-and-plaster walls, rooting out the flames and stopping them from spreading wasn’t possible.

“That made it difficult to find the seat of the fire,” he said. “We were fighting an uphill battle right from the start.”

Balloon framing is a construction technique where the studs extend from the first floor or basement to the rafters, often without blocking or insulation between the rafters. Once flames get in the walls, Chapman said there is nothing to slow or stop them. The home also had one-half-inch-thick pine lath covered with plaster. So instead of using axes and pike poles to quickly rip holes in the walls and expose the studs, firefighters had to use chain saws. The house also had several additions.

Firefighters pulled back and changed their mission from saving the home to preventing the flames from spreading to nearby structures or from running up a hillside in the area. Chapman said several fire departments from Whitman County and Moscow responded to the blaze.

Two Colfax firefighters were taken to the hospital where they were evaluated and then released. One suffered heat stress and the other fell off the roof.

No one was home when the fire started.

Chapman said a crew continued to monitor the blaze Sunday. The cause is under investigation.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.