Firefighters battle a house fire at the corner of Dublin and Cohn streets Sunday evening. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
The lights went out in Rob Krzenski’s living room just before 9 p.m. When he saw an electrical socket glowing, he knew something was very wrong.
“I yelled at my wife to get the kids out, I banged on the door so the tenants would get out, and I grabbed the garden hose,” Krzenski said.
The fire quickly climbed the entire height of the stately two-story house at the corner of Cohn and Dublin, said Ken Rayes, who fled from his own house next door and locked his cat in the van, just in case. Firefighters arrived on scene and managed to get the blaze under control before any adjacent structures were threatened, but the flames left long open wounds in the house’s frame.
No one in the house was harmed, Krzenski said, watching the last wisps of smoke drift from the attic and water pour out of the holes in the house, down the front porch. The children were shaken but playing at a neighbor’s, and Krzenski said they’d find a place to stay the night.
“It looks like I’m going to be doing the siding over,” Krzenski said, and laughed a little. “I wanted to re-side it anyway.”
Smoke pours out of the house as firefighters work to get the fire under control. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
Firefighters were able to keep the blaze from threatening neighborhing homes. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
Firefighters work to extinguish the fire from inside the house. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
A firefighter exits the house on Dublin and Cohn St. (SabreeHill, UptownMessenger.com)
Photos by Sabree Hill; article by Robert Morris. Contact us at sabreehill@NolaMessenger.com and rmorris@NolaMessenger.com, or post your comment below.
