A fire severely damaged an unoccupied North Day Street home Sunday night.“I think the house was a total loss,” said Powell Fire Chief Joey Darrah.Darrah said the fire apparently started behind a wall unit heater, then spread up the wall and into the home's attic.

The rental home's owner happened to be in the residence that night and spotted smoke, Darrah said. Efforts to put out the fire with a wet mop failed, and the owner evacuated and called the fire department, he said.

The Powell Volunteer Fire Department was paged to the home, located in the 200 block of North Day, around 8:35 p.m. The first firemen arrived on scene four minutes later and found smoke wafting from the house.

For the next 20 minutes or so, firemen ventilated the home and used a limited amount of water to suppress the fire while waiting for city of Powell workers to arrive and shut off the home's electricity.

Darrah said it's unsafe to hose down a house with the power on.

“Water and electricity just don't mix,” he said.

For example, Darrah said there was a power strip in the basement that, mixed with the standing water from the fire suppression, could have proven deadly had a firefighter stepped in it.

The attic flames also damaged the home's ceiling, making some parts of the residence unsafe for firefighters to enter.

“We can always replace a house, but we can't replace a guy,” Darrah said.

The city's electrical department arrived on scene just after 9 p.m., allowing full-scale suppression to begin.

Darrah called the wait a “considerable amount of time.”

“I don't want to complain, but it can make the difference between us being able to save a house or not,” said Darrah.

City of Powell Electric Superintendent Larry Carter said the response was delayed Sunday when linemen arrived at the electrical shop and found the battery on the department's bucket truck was dead.

When the truck was taken in for maintenance on Monday morning, it was found the alternator had quit charging, Carter said, calling it an oddball thing.

He said the repairs would be made and “hopefully we'll be ready for the next one (emergency).”

Darrah said it was a good thing the property owner happened to spot the fire early or the night's strong winds could have easily spread the flames to a neighboring apartment complex.