ST. GEORGE — Emergency crews responded to a house fire at 710 Lava Point Drive in St. George at about 4:07 p.m., Thursday.

“A guy knocked on my door, I don’t know where he came from or what he was doing, he didn’t live in the neighborhood, but he said ‘your neighbor’s house is on fire, there’s smoke coming out of the attic,'” next door neighbor Shane Swensen said.

Swensen ran to the neighbor’s house and noticed that the car was there. “There is always someone home when their car is there,” he said.

A police officer arrived and broke the glass on the front door and went in to see if anyone was in the house. “The next thing I know the teenage boy who lives at the house is coming out with a towel around him, he was in the shower,” Swensen said. “Then I was really happy because we didn’t know he was home.”

“The call came out, I was only a couple of blocks away. I could see smoke,” St. George Police Officer Jarab Daniel said. “When I got here smoke was barreling out the back of the house, tried the front door real fast, rang the doorbell, no one answered, I ran around to the back and could hear sounds of fire coming from the upstairs area, crackling and what not.”

Daniel then ran to the front of the house and a neighbor, Swensen, told him that when the homeowner’s car was there she was typically home.

“At that point, I decided to break into the front door, it was a glass door, so I used my baton to break that door down, got into the house, searched the house real fast, in one of the rooms I found a male juvenile and quickly got him out of the house,” Daniel said. He then went back into the house and determined there was no one else in the home and fire crews arrived within 30 seconds to a minute after that.”

St. George Fire Chief Robert Stoker was among the fire crews that responded to the fire.

“It looks like the fire originated on the back deck as far as we can tell right now,” Stoker said. “It burned through the stucco on the wall, traveled up the wall and into the attic.”

One dog was found inside of the home and rescued by firefighters. Two dogs in the back yard were also safely evacuated from the area.

The fire was contained by about 4:45 p.m.

There were no injuries reported and the total damage to the home is unknown pending further investigation. Six engines and one ladder truck responded to the scene, Stoker said. Gold Cross Ambulance Service and St. George Police also responded.

“I want to extend my gratitude to the fire department and first responders,” homeowner Guy Matthews said. “They were right on it.” 

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