Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Home Destroyed

BY JOHN MILLER

Fire destroyed a home on First Street Monday evening.

According to Jake McBride, Gurdon Fire Chief, the fire was apparently caused by faulty wiring.

There was little the three trucks and crews could do to save the structure as it was completely engulfed when firemen arrived.

Firefighters battled the blaze, working to keep it from spreading to nearby homes.

However, embers from the fire sailed across the railroad tracks starting a grass fire near the Smithpeters Oil Company bulk plant.

McBride said a truck and crew had to be pulled off the house fire to fight on the second front and keep the blaze from reaching the bulk plant and possibly igniting a major oil fire.

No one had been at the house all day, McBride said of the fire and arson is not suspected.

He reminds Gurdon residents a burn ban is in effect and will remain so until the area has received three or four inches of rain.

The recent showers, he said, haven't been enough to lift the burn ban as the rain is absorbed into the ground almost as soon as it hits.