Fire damages rural Jamestown home, kills pet

Talk about it

A rural Jamestown man jumped out a second-story window from his burning home Saturday.

Todd Nelson, who lives between Windsor and Eldridge, thinks his cat alerted him to the fire.

“I think the cat woke me up or I heard popping or something,” Nelson said.

The Jamestown Rural Fire Department, Stutsman County Sheriff’s Office and Jamestown Ambulance responded to a fire at the residence around 3 a.m. Saturday. The Buffalo Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross also responded to assist with comfort and personal care needs.

The fire appeared to originate in the kitchen, Nelson said, saying he tried to put it out with a fire extinguisher he kept in his work truck.

Nelson is a pipeline technician for Kinder Morgan.

Most of what isn’t damaged by fire was damaged by water or smoke, Nelson said, saying he hasn’t received a report from his insurance company yet.

Stutsman County Sheriff’s Deputy Damian Hoyt said if not for the JRFD’s quick response, the fire would have caused more damage.

“I think without that, the house would have been a total loss,” he said.

Hoyt said the firefighters responded to the fire, which was about 9 miles from Jamestown, in about 20 minutes.

In addition to the home and its contents, Nelson said he lost his cat, Savannah.

Temporarily, Nelson is staying at a motel in Jamestown, courtesy of the Red Cross.

“They (the Red Cross and all the responding agencies) took really good care of me,” he said.

Nelson, originally from Minnesota and Missouri, said he’d lived in the home for three years.

Sun reporter Katie Ryan-Anderson can be reached at 701-952-8454 or by email at kryan-anderson@jamestownsun.com

Tags: local news, fires, fire, news