Johnston Fire Crews Battle House Fire, Heat Wednesday Morning

A house fire in Johnston Wednesday morning began with a child playing a with a lighter, Johnston Police officials said.

Johnston Fire Chief Jim Krohse said the Johnston Police Department responded to the residential fire at 5720 Northwest 92nd Court at 8:11 a.m.

The fire was confined to the family room area of the home, burning a hole in the carpet and damaging a portion of the wall above, Krohse said.

"Everyone was out of the house when we arrived, except the family cat," he said. "We found the cat and got it out of the house and paramedics gave it a bit of oxygen and it was fine when we left."

The fire was distinguished in about 10 minutes but crews stayed for about an hour to ventilate smoke from the house.

Krohse said the family will not be displaced because of the fire and that power was restored except for one outlet near the damaged area.

Fire Departments from Grimes, Ankeny, Saylor Township, Windsor Heights, Clive and Urbandale, as well as Fraser EMS reported to the scene.

"Basically what it boils down to that on any reported fire we immediately bring in Grimes, but because of the heat and humidity, I opted to bring in additional help in case we needed it. It was not the magnitude of the fire but the heat that necessitated bringing in that many."

Krohse said the general rule of thumb is crews can work for about 30 to 45 minutes on a fire, but in these elevated temperatures crews are lucky to be able to work for 10 minutes.