A house fire in York County that saw firefighters rescue several pets appears to have started from gasoline leaking from a portable generator that was ignited by a gas-powered water heater in the garage, officials said.
A dog, two hamsters and several turtles were extracted from the house on the 200 block of Harwood Drive in Grafton as a fire in the garage blanketed the rest of the house in thick smoke, said Capt. Paul Long of York County Fire and Life Safety. Nobody was home when the fire started.
Long said the estimated damage to the house is about $150,000. The garage received extensive damage from the fire while the rest of the house was damaged by heat and smoke.
Firefighters had the blaze under control in about 15 minutes.
Long stressed the importance of carefully planning where any gasoline or similar flammable materials in the garage are stored. Fires often begin not from a flame touching the liquid but rather when it comes into contact with the vapor.
“You could potentially have something all the way on the other end of the garage, but on a hot summer day when it’s not well ventilated, the flammable liquid could be putting out vapors that build up and then ignite from across the garage,” Long said.
The best thing you can do with a portable generator is to read the manufacturer’s instructions and closely follow them, Long said. He said an outside shed is a good place to store gasoline, propane tanks or other liquids that are potentially flammable.
