SLO home catches fire, sparking investigation
A San Luis Obispo home was damaged after it caught fire on Wednesday afternoon.
The outside of the home, located in the 3100 block of Johnson Avenue, caught fire at about 3:50 p.m. Wednesday, according to emergency response app PulsePoint.
The fire was confined to a plot measuring about 5 feet by 5 feet, and did not extend into the inside of the house, according to San Luis Obispo City Fire Department spokesperson James Blattler.
“Had it gone unchecked, it had the potential to be very kind of damaging,” Blattler said.
Firefighters had to chop holes in the roof for ventilation while battling the flames, according to emergency radio traffic.
Firefighters extinguished the fire by about 4:08 p.m., according to emergency radio traffic.
Firefighters requested a fire investigator, scanner chatter said.
“The Fire Marshall listed the most likely cause of the fire to be accidental related to disposed ashes, and law enforcement was not brought in for a criminal investigation,” Blattler wrote in an email to The Tribune on Feb. 21.
This story was originally published February 15, 2023 at 4:30 PM.
CORRECTION: A previous version of the story incorrectly stated that firefighters on the scene called for an arson investigation. The story was updated to show that firefighters called for a standard fire investigation, which revealed that the fire was most likely an accident caused by the disposal of ashes.
