Dover firefighters respond to house fire, smoky hotel back-to-back
DOVER (WJER) (Feb. 12, 2024) – Dover firefighters had a busy afternoon Saturday. Captain Mike Mossor says they were first called to a house fire in the 300 block of Potschner Drive Northeast shortly before 2:30 p.m.
“When we arrived, we had a very well-involved fire on the first and second floor,” he said.
He says a teen and two younger siblings home at the time made it out unharmed. Mossor says the house was nearly a complete loss, as only the garage was saved. He says the cause remains under investigation, but it appears to have started around the back deck and spread quickly throughout the home.
“It’s just not safe for interior firefighting, so we initiated a defensive attack from outside and put some large water streams on it,” he said.
Mossor said firefighters had the blaze under control in about 30 minutes.
Then just before 3:30 p.m. firefighters were called to Quality Inn on state Route 39 for smoke throughout the second floor. Mossor says it ended up being a washing machine producing the smoke, blamed on a mechanical failure.
“We had difficulty trying to locate the source for a little while,” he said. “We ended up doing a room-to-room search there and eventually discovered that it was coming from the washing machine.”
Mossor says damage was contained to that machine.