Officer saw smoke, a house was saved

Police Sgt. Glen Hartman’s observing eyes prevented the destruction of a house at 812 Ninth St. Tuesday morning.

Hartman was driving past the home of Tara Tuchel when he noticed smoke coming from a second-floor window and notified the county emergency communications center.

The Hudson Fire Department was dispatched to house at 9:12 a.m. Within 15 minutes, firefighters had extinguished the fire in an upstairs bedroom.

“It was an early spot, so that was good,” said Hudson Fire Chief Jim Frye.

He said the fire damage was limited to the bedroom, but there was heavy smoke damage throughout the second floor of the house.

“The main floor is pretty good. It is pretty well intact. (There’s) a little bit of water damage. Not too much,” the fire chief said.

He said the house can be repaired.

No one was home when the fire ignited.

Frye said the cause of the fire appeared to be electrical. He said “pretty much everything” in the bedroom where it started was burning when firefighters arrived.

Tuchel, a cognitive disabilities teacher for the Hudson School District, had left for work at 7:30 a.m., Frye reported.

The Hudson Fire Department immediately requested the assistance of one engine from the Lower St. Croix Valley Fire Department at St. Croix Beach, Minn.

Chief Frye reported all fire units clear of the scene at 11:14 a.m.

Tags: news, wisconsin, fires