A house fire occurred with no clear cause on Feb. 25 near the intersection of Hickory Street and West Cedar Street. The Platteville Fire Department received the 911 call at 11:18 p.m. Saturday evening and cleared the premises at 3:30 a.m. Sunday morning.

When the PFD arrived on scene, fire had been coming out of the structure, Fire Chief Ryan Simmons noted in an interview with the Exponent. First responders were able to suppress the fire within 30 minutes of arrival. The fire caused significant damage to the structure, and the building has since been deemed unlivable.

The affected property was a duplex housing two individuals on one side and a woman and her dog on the other side. Neighbors of the duplex stepped in to notify and ensure all occupants cleared the premise. No injuries were reported by occupants and responders.

After suppressing the fire, the PFD performed “overhaul.” This is the process of identifying smoldering areas and hotspots within the structure. After the overhauling process, the PFD continued to ventilate the area while setting up thermal imagery to monitor temperatures.

At this time in the overall firefighting process, firefighters also began to investigate for possible causes after cleaning and making the scene safe. No cause for the fire has been determined at this time, which is not uncommon.

Chief Simmons described that this fire had been a fairly normal process with nothing outstanding. The monitored temperatures during the overhaul process lowered in a typical, safe manner and nothing reheated.

Chief Simmons noted that the safe and swift suppression of the fire is due in part to the awake, aware and vigilant college neighbors who called 911 and ensured occupants were aware of the fire.