Fire on Transylvania Park did not have certain cause

Battalion Chief Mark Harvey of the Lexington Fire Department said that the cause of the 9:30 p.m. fire at 416 Transylvania Park had not been ascertained Tuesday night.

The homeowner left at about 9 p.m. and returned half an hour later to find a fire in his house.

When the firefighters arrived, “they managed to isolate it out to the back … near the bathroom and back hallway,” Harvey said.

It only took 15 to 20 minutes to use fire extinguishers, then stretch a hose out to finish the job, he added. Afterward, the fire department did a routine search for occupants on the first and second floors of the house and checked for spaces where more fires could be hidden.

The first responders were packing up to leave an hour after the call came through.

Harvey said that since the cause of the accident had not been determined, he could only speculate about the cause of the fire. As the occupant was not home, though, he assumed it was accidental.

The fire department turned off the electricity in the home, but Harvey said there was no structural reason why the homeowner could not stay there that night.