Jerome City Fire Department applauds use of extinguishers in structure fire

Just before noon the Jerome City Fire Department responded to a 911 call about an explosion. Sharon lee says, that call came from her.

"Big but loud. Like a I'd say a gunshot," is how Lee described the sound.

Sharon said she was inside her home located next door to Barry's Rental Equipment in Jerome, and the loud noise scared her and her pet cats.

"It was so loud that it shook the U–Haul building and it shook my house," she said.

She said after her call to 911, the Jerome City Fire Department made their way to the area, but when they arrived, there wasn't much left to be done.

"The people that were working in the building put the fire out with some extinguishers," said Chief Tom Hughes.

Fire crews stuck around to do an official investigation.

"We found out that the tenants of the building were grinding on some metal and that sparked and set some fuel vapors on fire," Hughes said.

But they say the men in the building did the right thing.

"They used two fire extinguishers here and put the fire out before we got here," Hughes said.

As for Sharon, she applauded her neighbor's quick thinking.

"That's the first thing that they did," she said. "They grabbed the fire extinguisher before the fire department came and they used the fire extinguisher and got it out."

Chief Hughes said it's good to have fire extinguishers in shops and garages, but even more important to have functioning smoke alarms in your home.

"Check your smoke alarms, make sure they work," he said. "If not call us if you live in Jerome, we'll get those put in."