No injuries in Sunday Whiteside County fires
Sterling and Rock Falls firefighters doused two blazes Sunday.
The first occurred around 12:30 a.m., when the exterior of a duplex at 606 1/2 W. 6th St., Sterling, caught fire, and the flames spread from the back porch to the kitchen, Lt. Mike Wheeler said.
It’s not yet known what started the fire. The tenants, Raciel Salgado, his wife and three children, ages 12, 10 and 5 months, were not injured, but cannot live in the house at this time, Wheeler said.
Then around 8:20 a.m., Rock Falls firefighters responded to a call at 1090 Hamilton Road, also known as County Line Road.
A cat had knocked over a lamp that had been left on, and the heat from the bulb set the couch on fire, Capt. Chris Bouwens said.
Lisa Schultz and her two children, who were upstairs, were alerted by their smoke alarm and escaped without injuries. Her husband, David Schultz, was not home at the time, Bouwens said.
The home is insured, but smoke and fire damage have rendered it uninhabitable for now, he said.
No further details about either family’s situation were available this morning.
