This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
An "avoidable" fire that started on a stove damaged a Kearns home Tuesday afternoon, displacing a family of six.
The fire burned a home at 3990 W. Zodiac Drive (6020 South), according to Unified Fire Capt. Fitzgerald Petersen. Crews got word of the blaze at 2:09 p.m., and when they arrived found smoke and flames coming out of the home's second story.
Petersen said the firefighters knocked the flames down within five minutes. A 14-year-old boy and a police officer both suffered from smoke inhalation. Petersen said the boy had rushed back into the home in an attempt to save a pet.
Fire crews later found an unconscious cat in the home, which they managed to revive by giving it oxygen.
Petersen said the fire began when someone left something cooking on the stove top and walked out of the room. The pot then flared up and ignited the house. Petersen said that the blaze was therefore avoidable and stressed that any time something is cooking someone should be around to watch it.
"It requires no time for that to flare up," Petersen said, adding that thousands of fires start nationwide every year because people leave cooking food unattended.
The fire left the home unlivable, Petersen said, but he did not have an immediate estimate of the damage.
The Red Cross said it was providing food and shelter to the four adults and two children who lived there.
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