Furnace ruled as cause of Wednesday fire

<span>A blower motor on a furnace has been ruled to be the cause of a Wednesday morning fire call on Clore Street in Chester.</span>

<span>According to Chester Fire Chief Marty Bert, the occupant of the home, Tim Kempfer, awoke to his smoke alarm sounding and his house at 1721 Clore St. filling with smoke.</span>

<span>"(The fire) was self-contained to the furnace," Bert told the Herald Tribune. "When they burn up, they vent to the whole house."</span>

<span>The Ellis Grove Volunteer Fire Department was also paged for mutual aid to the incident, which was initially reported as a house filling with smoke.</span>

<span>"It took us awhile to find it," Bert said. "We had Ellis Grove in route because we didn't know what it was going to be. We opened the windows and doors to vent it out."</span>

<span>Chester firefighters were paged out at 7:39 a.m. and back in service at 8:22 a.m.</span>