Electrical Fire Causes Damage Inside "Hillside House Of Hell"


A fire last week at the Hillside House Of Hell haunted house building in Glenwood was electrical and started in the facility’s laundry room. It was discovered by a person living in the building.

The Hillside House Of Hell haunted house building in Glenwood sustained substantial damage in a Jan. 31 fire.

Glenwood Fire Chief Matt Gray said the fire was detected around 6 a.m. in the laundry room of the facility at 114 Green St. The building had previously served as a skilled nursing care facility.

“It was an electrical fire that started in the laundry room,” Gray said. “They had some people that were living in there. We had the fire marshal come in and do a walk-through on the place. I haven’t gotten his report yet but he went through and it looks like some things are going to have to be addressed as far as electrical and things like that up in the facility.”

Gray said the fire ignited toward the middle of the building on the north side.

“The sprinkler system activated and it kind of contained it to that area but it was still a hot moving fire,” he said. “It was going up into the rafters above the sprinkler system when we got there. We were able to contain it. We had to do some overhaul on the room to expose the rafters and get into there.

“It presented a challenge because it isn’t like the nursing home facility it was before. We had to go between walls because of the design of the haunted house to get to the location. We had some obstacles to overcome there. It kind of concerned me that there we no audible alarms going off, just the actual sprinkler system had activated in that one room.”

Gray said when he and other Glenwood firefighters arrived on the scene, the laundry room was filled with smoke and there was fire on the wall.

“It really didn’t take that long to get it under control, it was more trying to get to it to make sure everything was extinguished,” he said. “We had to remove a bunch of drywall and a bunch of other things that were in the road to be able to get to the actual rafters and actual walls.”

Glenwood received assistance at the scene from the Oak Township and Silver City Fire Departments as well as two firefighters from Pacific Junction, Gray said.

 

The Opinion-Tribune

116 S Walnut St Glenwood, IA 51534-1665
P.O. Box 377, Red Oak, IA 51566
Phone: 712-527-3191
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