MASON CITY – The owner of a house that burned late Thursday and early Friday morning tells NIT the home is a total loss.
Brigid Porter is the owner of the house at 418 9th Street NE that started on fire Thursday night around 9:54 PM. Her ex-husband, Jeff Lack, lived in the house. Lack was able to get out of the house, but Porter told NIT that Lack was “trapped” in the house for several minutes upstairs and inhaled “quite a bit” of smoke, but she did’t think he sought medical attention. Both of his dogs were rescued from the house before the blaze spread.
Porter showed NIT several photos of the devastation from inside the house. The second floor largely collapsed as firefighters wee unable to squelch the blue until after 4:45 AM when they finally left the scene. Putting the fire out was complicated to what the Mason City Fire Department described as “concealed spaces within the structure.”
The origin of the fire was determined to be wiring in a kitchen wall near an electrical outlet.
Porter and a friend were at the house Friday afternoon salvaging what they could from the house and preparing to board up the windows and doors to prevent theft of any times that could be of value.
