Pickup totaled in Friday morning fire

    A pickup is likely totaled from a fire early Friday morning, said Fire Chief Doug Mitchell.
    The Imperial Volunteer Fire Department (IVFD) was called to the Kriss Krutsinger residence along Golf Course Road Friday at 7:27 a.m., where Krutsinger’s work pickup was on fire.
    Mitchell said while the fire was out within 10 minutes using the IVFD’s quick attack unit and city pumper, the cab is gone and he believes it’s a total loss.
    He links the fire’s cause to a propane torch that was inside the cab.
    The pickup was parked within six feet of the garage behind the home, and heat from the fire curled some of the vinyl siding, he said.
    “If it had been five miles out, we would have had a fully involved garage,” he believes.
    Firefighters used their self-contained breathing apparatus equipment as they approached the fire, he said.