An electrical fire left a north Columbia home uninhabitable and amassed $200,000 in damages Thursday.
The owner, Jeremy Spillman, was outside for a few minutes and returned to find thick smoke. Spillman was able to evacuate his two dogs from the structure, but a pet bird did not survive.
The Columbia Fire Department responded at 10:54 a.m. to the fire in the 5000 block of Hatteras Drive. The fire was extinguished from the front and rear of the structure in approximately 30 minutes, according to a news release.
The fire caused the interior stairway to the basement to collapse.
“The collapse of the stairway further weakened the floor and hindered our ability to get from the second floor to the first floor,” CFD Capt. John Metz said.
Crews remained at the scene for two hours to extinguish smoldering debris, according to the news release.
There were no injuries.
