Palestine fire cause still under investigation

The cause for Sunday's house fire in the 4200 block of Palestine Road is still being investigated, according to Chester Fire Chief Marty Bert.

"We don't believe it's arson or anything, but we're still investigating," Bert said, adding that fire officials are waiting on the insurance company's investigator to conduct an investigation. "It's kind of hard to get in there. One floor collapsed by the front door, so it's hard to get in there and find out."

The home is owned by Dave and Rhonda Bixby and is considered a total loss. Rhonda Bixby was home at the time of the fire and made it out safely, along with the family's pets.

"They told us that it was a basement house at one time and added an A-frame on top of it," Bert said. "We think the fire was trapped between the old roof and the new structure."

Steeleville and Ellis Grove fire departments were paged for mutual aid, while Perryville was paged for station coverage at the Chester firehouse.

While on standby, Chester received a call for a smoke alarm sounding at Memorial Hospital and Perryville was dispatched to respond.

Bert said he believes a cleaning crew caused the alarm.

"They think they sprayed some type of cleaning chemical and closed the door," Bert said.

Sunday's windy conditions made fighting the fire difficult for the roughly 30 firefighters on the ground.

"That was a big factor in this one," Bert said. "Fifteen to 20 mph sustained winds with gusts higher than that. In the A-frame, it's a different type of fire to fight too.

"It's got corners and spaces that make it a little bit harder to fight."

The initial call came at 1:37 p.m. Chester fire units were back in service at 6:22 p.m.

The Herald Tribune will have further updates as they become available.