Two people die in a house fire in Casa Colorada

CASA COLORADA — Two people died in an accidental house fire last week in Casa Colorada, south of the city of Rio Communities.

Firefighters arrived at a mobile home on fire in the 80 block on Storey Avenue just before 6:30 a.m., Friday, Jan. 30. The call into the dispatch center reported possible victims were inside the home.

Valencia County Fire Chief Matt Propp said when the first crews arrived, the majority of the home was already on fire. According to a VCFD Facebook post made the day of the fire, units from Rio Communities Fire Department and VCFD were first on scene and found there was heavy fire activity — about 75 percent of the structure.

When crews conducted a rapid primary search, they found one person dead inside.

“Fire conditions worsened and crews had to evacuate the structure due to partial collapse,” the post reads.

Propp said when crews were able to re-enter the home, they found a man dead in a bedroom on the north side of the house and a woman dead in the kitchen on the south side of the home.

“The State Fire Marshal’s Office said there’s nothing suspicious about the cause of the fire. It appears it was probably from the wood stove in the house,” the chief said. “It was possible overloaded and not installed correctly.”

According to the National Fire Protection Association’s website — nfpa.org — heating is a leading cause of U.S. home fires and home fire injuries, and the third leading cause of home fire deaths.

December, January and February are the peak months for heating fires. Space heaters are the type of equipment most often involved in home heating equipment fires, accounting for nearly one-third of the fires, as well as the vast majority of deaths and injuries in home fires caused by heating equipment.

Half of all home heating fires happen in December, January and February, and one in every seven home fires and one in every home fire deaths involves heating equipment.

The NFPA advises keeping anything that can burn at least three fee away from any heat source such as fireplaces, wood stoves, radiators or space heaters.

Store cooled ashes in a tightly covered metal container outside, at least 10 feet from your home and any nearby buildings.

Keep portable generators outside, away from windows and as far away from your home as possible, and install and test carbon monoxide alarms at least once a month. Plug only one heat-producing appliance — like a space heater — into an electrical outlet at a time.

The association recommends having a qualified professional clean and inspect your chimney and vents every year.

Valencia County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Joseph Rowland said the two people found in the home haven’t been positively identified by the Office of the Medical Investigator as of Tuesday, Feb. 3, but the bodies recovered are consistent with those of a 74-year-old man and a 70-year-old woman.