Fire destroys Cooktown home

Cooktown, W.Va. – A two-alarm fire destroyed a residence on Ruckman Road in Cooktown on Monday afternoon. The Marlinton and Hillsboro Fire Departments responded to the Alvon Ryder residence just after noon and found the structure engulfed in flames.

Marlinton VFD Captain Gene Tracy describes what happened.

“We responded with Hillsboro as a mutual aid,” he said. “They toned both of us out at the same time. The call came in about 12:09 and we dispatched at 12:10 and we was enroute in less than six minutes after that. And it took us approximately about eight minutes to get on-scene, from the time that they called us.

“Part of the house was already fully engulfed. The fire had done vented itself over top of the garage area and stuff. It started spreading throughout the rest of the house through the upstairs and through the attic area and stuff.

“Pretty much, all we really did was, you know, we got on scene, went inside and made an interior attack and an exterior attack. A lot of flames was coming through the roof, too. We went ahead and ventilated some other areas with some rescue saws and some stuff like that to try to put water into the attic and upstairs. When we originally arrived on-scene, we was unable to get to the upstairs from inside because it was just too hot. We made an exterior attack through the roof from the outside of the building and was able to cool it down some. We was able to save part of it but not all of it.”

Firefighters remained on the scene until late afternoon and were able to save part of the house. There were no injuries resulting from the blaze. The cause of the fire is still being investigated.

All of Ryder’s personal belongings were destroyed by fire and water. Donations of household goods or other items can be dropped off the Marlinton Fire Department.