A duplex home in Spenard had a close call when a passerby spotted smoke and fire coming from its roof Friday afternoon.
The Anchorage Fire Department responded to the house on Orion Circle around 3 p.m. to find flames coming from a vent pipe on the roof.
Two firefighters entered the home's bathroom, where they found an exhaust fan on fire. Firefighters began pulling apart the ceiling in the bathroom area to stop the spread of the flames.
Nobody was at home at the time, and Captain Richard Minkler with AFD says the bathroom fan either malfunctioned or overheated.
“There's some roofing that's pulled in both the bathroom and master bedroom area, but once they get that covered up and they can get the insulation back in, it should definitely be inhabitable,” Minkler said. “Not a whole lot of damage to the structure, thankfully … we were here within minutes and got a quick knockdown so the structure itself was saved.”
Minkler says there would have been an attic fire in another few minutes if the passerby hadn't notified the fire department.