Kansas fire marshal investigating house, barn fire

Area fire personnel responded early Friday morning to two separate fires on property located on 255th Street and U.S. Highway 54 east of Fort Scott near the Kansas-Missouri state line.

Scott Township Rural Fire Chief Eric McKay said the call about a fire at 1277 255th St. and a separate blaze in a barn located about 150 feet away from the house came in about 3 a.m. Friday. Both structures are owned by Steve Powell.

McKay said Powell had been using the single-story house to store old railroad and train memorabilia, including antique lanterns and shovels. About three-fourths of the house was destroyed and the barn "was a complete loss," McKay said.

"By the time we got there, it (the barn) was on the ground," he said.

McKay said "most everything" in the house was lost. The owner was sifting through the rubble Friday "to see if anything is salvageable." Nobody was living in the house at the time of the fire and there were no injuries. Firefighters were able to save two rooms in the house. Both fires were put out by 5:30 a.m.

The fires are being investigated by the Kansas State Fire Marshal as they are "suspicious in nature," McKay said. The fire did not move from structure to structure.

"One fire started in the barn and then another started in the house," he said. "It didn't transfer; it was two separate fires."

Responding to the fires were six fire trucks and 10 firefighters with Scott Township, a Fort Scott Fire Department truck to help with water and the Garland Fire Department, which sent two tankers to help extinguish the blazes.