Occupants reported safe after fire burns at historic Painesville home, closes Mentor Avenue
Jan 15, 2025
All occupants and firefighters were reported safe Jan. 15 after a three-alarm fire burned through a historic Painesville house and closed a portion of Mentor Avenue.
Response vehicles from throughout the area lined up along the nearby streets and worked to put out the fire at 205 Mentor Ave. Painesville City Fire Chief Tom Hummel said that around 15 departments responded to the fire.
During a briefing around 1:30 p.m., he said that the situation was “under control.” Responders were working at that point to put out hot spots and determine that the fire was extinguished.
Painesville City Fire Chief Tom Hummel addresses reporters as around 15 area fire departments finish putting out a fire at 205 Mentor Ave. on Jan. 15. (Bryson Durst — The News-Herald)
According to Hummel, the Painesville department first received a report of the fire at 11 a.m. The officer who responded saw an outside fire that went up from a ground-level porch, and it involved a side of the house and the attic.
The chief said that responders initially used an “offensive attack,” where they applied a little bit of water to the outside and took hose lines inside. Eventually they had to leave the house and switched to a “defensive” strategy, including the use of engines with aerial ladders, because falling objects made it dangerous for the firefighters to remain inside.
The responders also encountered frozen hydrants in the frigid weather, though Hummel said that they were not significantly delayed because the hydrant right in front of the house was working.
Firefighters walk in and around a house at 205 Mentor Ave. in Painesville as they work to finish putting out a fire there around 1:22 p.m. on Jan. 15. (Bryson Durst -- The News-Herald)Smoke pours over Paige Avenue in Painesville on Jan. 15 as firefighters work to put out a fire at 205 Mentor Ave. (Bryson Durst -- The News-Herald)Smoke is visible over Paige Avenue in Painesville on Jan. 15 as a fire burns at 205 Mentor Ave. (Bryson Durst -- The News-Herald)Show Caption1 of 3Firefighters walk in and around a house at 205 Mentor Ave. in Painesville as they work to finish putting out a fire there around 1:22 p.m. on Jan. 15. (Bryson Durst -- The News-Herald)Expand
The house was divided into apartment units and 11 residents were displaced, he added.
“It’s a very old home, I believe it’s a century home, and it was broken up into several apartments, and that creates a lot of void spaces and concealed areas for the fire to travel that we can’t always see, and that does make our job a little more difficult,” Hummel said. “They tend not to collapse as much but they do burn a lot longer.”
He added that the roof had burned off and about half of a small apartment behind the house had also burned.
Fire response vehicles and hoses line a closed section of Mentor Avenue in Painesville just after 12:30 p.m. on Jan. 15. Firefighters worked to put out a fire at 205 Mentor Ave. in the middle of falling snow and frigid temperatures. (Bryson Durst — The News-Herald)
Hummel said that the firefighters achieved their primary goal.
“Our number one goal in the fire service is to make sure that all our residents are safe and all our firefighters remain safe,” he said.
Hummel said that an investigation was underway into the cause of the fire. That information, as well as the estimated damage, will be announced in an upcoming news release.
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