Person hospitalized after fire at abandoned house in SLC

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — One person was taken to the hospital with severe burns Friday after neighbors reported a fire at an abandoned home west of Salt Lake City.

Capt. Brandt Hancuff, a spokesman for the Salt Lake City Fire Department, said crews were called around 1 p.m. to a fire at a boarded-up property on Chicago Street in the Poplar Grove neighborhood of the city.

Witnesses reported seeing someone leaving the house with “pretty bad burns,” Handcuff said. Emergency crews transported the injured man to a local hospital in critical condition.

Hearing reports that other people might be inside the building, firefighters ventured into the burning structure. But finding no one during their search, they changed tactics and fought the fire from outside.

“The good news is that we were able to prevent the spread of the virus to neighboring houses,” Handcuff said, noting that firefighters quickly managed to extinguish the first flames.

Forty firefighters battled the flames in 80-degree heat, stopping periodically to rest and rehydrate. They cleaned up the remaining hot spots before leaving the scene. None of them were injured.

The investigation is looking into the causes of the fire.

According to Hancuff, firefighters were exhausted on Friday as crews also fought a fire in a barn filled with hay on the west side of town, not far from the Salt Lake City airport. Crews were expected to stay near the barn fire late into the night because hay fires can burn for “hours and hours.”