No one was injured in a house fire that caused an estimated $50,000 in damage to a duplex on Ray Avenue NW. (Photo by Stacey Carmany)

New Philadelphia, Ohio - City firefighters say no one was injured in a blaze that broke out at a duplex in the 700 block of Ray Avenue Thursday evening.

Lt. Robert Snyder says the call came in just before 8 pm, and units arrived on scene to find heavy flames engulfing the second story of the house.

“It was a multi-family residence, two stories, with heavy involvement on the second story rear of the building,” he says. “The guys took interior hose lines and fought the fire from the inside.”

Snyder says firefighters also performed what is known as an overhaul on the interior of the building to check for any hidden flames.

“We’ll go in and take and pull down walls and ceilings and stuff to make sure there’s not fire hidden in the walls. With a lot of older houses, there’s void spaces, and fire travels up, down sideways, every which way you can think of,” he explains.

Snyder says it took about two and a half hours to fully put out the blaze, which caused an estimated $50,000 in damage. Firefighters from Dover and Uhrichsville, Smith Ambulance and the New Philadelphia Police Department assisted at the scene. 

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. Snyder says there were no smoke detectors inside the residence.