Grill explosion triggers fire, at Woodland Avenue home

BEATRICE – Beatrice Firefighters were sent to a home in the eleven-hundred block of Woodland Avenue late Thursday afternoon, in the northwest Glenover section of the city.

Chief Brian Daake says it was initially reported as a cooking grill blowing up, and a fire in an attached garage. "We had multiple units out on medical calls...so we kind of had a hodge-podge response. The fire was out on arrival. They were able to hit it with a garden hose really quick, which was a good thing. It was definitely an accidental fire. There was no propane that exploded. There was some cleaning supplies, a couple of aerosol cans went off...which was what the noise was. There was one person at home at the time, and he was not injured."

Light smoke was observed when the first firefighters arrived on scene. A fire captain said that damage was minimal, mainly to the garage door, but the fire did not get into the roof of the garage.  Fire officials were investigating the cause of the grill malfunction, which happened just after 4:30 p.m.

Earlier in the afternoon at 1:24 p.m., Beatrice Firefighters were sent to a downtown business location along Court Street, where light smoke was observed on the first floor of a realty office. That turned out to be a problem with a furnace. There was no fire damage.