Wednesday brush fire spreads to home

Firefighters tend to a fire on CR 200 South, near Greencastle, Wednesday morning. No one was injured.

An unattended brush fire is apparently the cause for a house catching fire Wednesday morning, causing firefighters from several local agencies to respond.

According to fire officials from the scene, Robert Koenig, 1223 E. CR 200 South, Greencastle, was burning leaves in a container behind his home. He left the leaves unattended and they began to burn out of control, the flames somehow leaping to his nearby home.

At 11:48 a.m., Koenig called 911 and the Greencastle Fire Department was initially dispatched with instructions they were going to battle a brush fire.

Shortly after, they were re-dispatched that the brush fire had become a structure fire.

Greencastle Fire Chief Bill Newgent said, "The fire spread from the brush container into the backside of the garage. From the garage it spread into the attic of the tri-level home."

Newgent commented further that there was no real damage to the actual living area of the home.

Most of the damage to that part of the house was associated with smoke.

There were four other fire departments dispatched to assist Greencastle Fire Department as well, to include Cloverdale Township Fire, Madison Township Fire, Fillmore Fire and Bainbridge Fire Department, along with Putnam County Operation Life.

"There were no injuries," Newgent reported.

Later in the day, at 3:57 p.m., fire crews were called to return to the scene to handle smoke and burning embers.

The damage estimate for the fire is around $75,000.