NEIGHBORS PUT OUT FIRE IN HOUSE WHEN RESIDENTS ARE NOT AT HOME

When Ken Lewis and his cousin Scott Mitchell saw smoke and flames shooting out of a chimney of a house at 642 Terry Lane late Tuesday afternoon, they were quick to act.

Mitchell ran in and called the police; Lewis banged on the front door to alert the residents of the house.

When no one answered, Lewis broke the door open.

"There was a lot of smoke; you could see the fire burning on the stove like a grease fire," Lewis said. "Once I figured that no one was inside, I ran around the back and got a neighbor's garden hose."

Lewis and another neighbor, Randy "Rocky" Rainey, broke out a couple of the windows in the back of the house and then showered the stove with water from the hose.

"I ran in and turned the gas off; Randy started hauling stuff out of the house so that it wouldn't burn," Lewis said. "I knew that if we didn't turn the gas off, that the fire could start right up again."

By the time Cape Girardeau Police Officer Brian Ritter arrived on the scene just minutes after the call went out, the fire had been extinguished.

"There was a lot of smoke in the house but no fire," Ritter said. "The neighbors evidently put it out."

Rainey, who was affected by the smoke and fumes as he carried some of the furniture from inside the house out to the front lawn, was tended to by firefighters. He required no medical treatment.

Fire officials said that the house sustained fire and heat damage to kitchen area and smoke damage throughout.

The occupants, Ernie Corbin and David Hill, arrived shortly after the scene had been secured by firefighters.