UPDATE: Woman in burn ward after South Bend house fire

October 12, 2011|WSBT-TV Report

WSBT-TV Photo/ROBB RESSLER

SOUTH BEND – A busy South Bend street is back open after fire crews closed it for an early morning house fire.

It was one of two separate house fires overnight that sent two people to the hospital.

The first broke out just after midnight in the 100 block of Donald Street, just south of downtown South Bend.

Crews responded to the second fire, two blocks away on South Michigan Street, around 6 Wednesday morning.

At this point investigators are calling the fires "coincidental" saying they are not related. But they are also still searching for causes for both.

Firefighters had to tear down the home on South Michigan Street because they said the walls were bowing and the structure was unsafe.

There were no reports of anyone inside the vacant house. South Bend Fire Battalion Chief Carl Buchanon said the house is known for a place vagrants go and sleep. He said they would peel back the boards and go in.

This same home burned back in April and a patron from the bar next door rescued a woman. Firefighters told WSBT they actually boarded the home up and nobody should have been inside it at the time.

The first fire on Donald Street sent two people to the hospital. It broke out just after midnight Wednesday.

WSBT talked with a man who was lying on the couch with his girlfriend when he said he heard a popping noise and realized the house was on fire.

"I couldn't really see anything,” said Cody Butters. “I had her then as one arm went out the window. I tried reaching back for her. She wasn't there. Then I was worried because I was trying to make sure I could grab her and reach my arm in there. I couldn't find her at all."

He was able to make it. He was sent to the hospital for smoke inhalation and minor burns on his hands. Firefighters eventually pulled his girlfriend out. She was air-lifted to a burn unit in Fort Wayne.

Firefighters rescued a dog from the fire, but another dog died.

Investigators are still searching for a cause.

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