Crime & Safety

Fire on Rau Road Takes Out Barn, Cars

An elderly man and his stepson suffered minor injuries.

A fire on Rau Road Wednesday sent one man to the hospital and destroyed a barn and everything in it, including vehicles.  The Cosumnes Fire Department said the fire was an accident, caused by an electrical malfunction.

Firefighters received a call at 3:44 p.m. and arrived at the location near Kammerer Road to find a barn fully ablaze, said Battalion Chief Greg Langer.

Two people, the barn owner and his stepson, were home when the fire started.

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"I was outside riding my horses when I noticed flames coming out of the barn door," said owner Ben Griffith, 76.

Griffith was treated for heat stroke on the scene. His 33-year-old stepson was taken to a local hospital with burns on his hands.

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Griffith said the barn contained valuable material including three generators, building supplies and an old Mustang he had been restoring.

"This is the first building fire we've had," Griffith said. "I'm always really careful."

Griffith's neighbor Dwaine Douglas was coming home from work when he saw the fire crew and flames.

"We see fires pretty often—usually from brush fires if things aren't kept up," Douglas said. "But this was a bad one."

Although the blaze was quickly confined and kept from spreading, Langer said the amount of building supplies within the barn would make extinguishing it an "extended operation."


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