HAMILTON COUNTY (WTHR) - Fire crews from multiple departments fought a large house fire just outside Westfield Thursday morning.
The fire started around 5:45 a.m. on 186th St. about two miles west of town. The house suffered heavy damage, but no one was home at the time.
One of the biggest challenges firefighters faced was getting enough water to knock down the fire. The closest hydrant is about half a mile away. Nick Southerland with the Westfield Fire Dept. said firefighters had to go do those off-site hydrants and fill up their truck, then went back to the house to supply firefighters' hoses.
He said it's not an unusual process, especially in rural parts of town where there aren't many hydrants. We saw some ready to go in at a new development, but that didn't help Thursday morning.
"We can go through these tanks really quick, especially with the ladder truck. It can pump out quite a bit of water," Southerland said.
Firefighters are still working to figure out how the fire started. Neighbors are just glad it wasn't worse.
"Me and my husband talked about that a lot this morning. It's really comforting just the fact that...they got there so quickly even with nobody [inside the house] to let them know," said Kristen Hampton.
Firefighters from Boone County were called in to help.
