Unattended Stove Blamed For Oakdale Residential Fire

An unattended stove is being blamed for a residential fire late Thursday in Oakdale, which led to significant kitchen damage in a trailer house on the south side of town.

According to the Oakdale Fire Department, they received a call at 11:24 p.m. of a kitchen fire at 605 Walther St.

Fire Chief Art Griffith said the Nebraska State Fire Marshal's office investigated and confirmed that the fire began at the stove where a pan with oil was left unattended.  Griffith said an occupant returned to the kitchen to find it filled with smoke and could see some flames. 

​The fire was extinguished by the time firefighters arrived; however, firefighters used a thermal heat gun to later discover hotspots in the walls of the structure. The Neligh Volunteer Fire Department brought its cascade unit for airpack bottles and lent Oakdale it's thermal detector. Oakdale will have its own thermal detector soon thanks to a donation from Transcanada, which firefighters said will greatly improve and speed up the accuracy of searching for hot spots. 

The Antelope County Sheriff's Department, NPPD and Source Gas also responded to the structure fire. The scene was cleared at 2:30 a.m. Friday.