NEWSLINE: FIREFIGHTER HURT AT BLAZE IN KELSO

KELSO -- A firefighter fell through the roof of a Kelso home Thursday as he attempted to fight a blaze that gutted the structure.

George Nall, chief of the New Hamburg, Benton and Commerce Fire District, said firefighter Terry Lufcy sustained what appeared to be a minor back injury in the fall.

He was taken to Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau where he was still being treated late Thursday night, according to a hospital spokesperson.

There were no other injuries, Nall said.

The fire was reported by a neighbor at about 4:30 Thursday afternoon. Nall said the home of Charlie and Diane Bond was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived. The home is located on Highway 61 about four miles south of Kelso.

The Bonds were not home at the time of the fire, the chief said.

"What we think happened was an overload in an electrical line," he said. "It shorted out and the fire ignited in a doorway. It then spread through the house."

The home was completed gutted by the fire, he said. It took NBC and the Scott City Fire Department about four hours to put out the fire, he added.