Tonganoxie firefighter responds to call at own home

? A Tonganoxie firefighter and his family are temporarily out of a home after an afternoon fire.

Full-time Tonganoxie firefighter Adam Griffith was on duty Thursday afternoon when the department received a call of a couch fire at his home at 2010 Hidden Valley Court. He was among the city firefighters responding to the fire in a duplex at the end of the Hidden Valley Court cul-de-sac in the Stone Creek neighborhood.

Tonganoxie firefighter Tammie McCutchen said Griffith’s wife, Erin, was in the home’s fully furnished basement at the time of the fire with her son, who was taking a shower.

It is believed the fire started shortly after 3:30 p.m. on the ground floor when a burning candle fell on a couch, McCutchen said.

McCutchen, who lives a block away from the house, said she and her husband were the first on the scene after the fire call. City firefighters found a fully engaged fire in the living room on their arrival, she said.

The upstairs sustained substantial fire, smoke and water damage, McCutchen said. There was also some smoke damage to the basement, she said.

No one was injured in the fire, McCutchen said.

Units from Tonganoxie and Stranger township fire departments also responded.

The other unit in the duplex, 2000 Hidden Valley Court, was not damaged, and its residents can remain in their home, McCutchen said.

Red Cross is helping the Griffith family, and city fire department personnel were also pitching in, McCutchen said.