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Basement fire at 13 Walnut St., Batavia

By Billie Owens

An electrical fire is reported in the basement of a house at 13 Walnut St. in the City of Batavia. The occupants have been evacuated and there is smoke coming from the building.

City Fire Department is on scene.

UPDATE (2:33 p.m.): The fire is knocked down. National Grid has been notified about the problem inside the electrical fuse box. Firefighters are "checking the extensions upstairs."

UPDATE (by Howard): Julie Worthington and Mary Kay Mayeu were sitting at the dining room table talking when they heard some loud buzzing pops and the lights flickered. Mayeu told Worthington she better get the kids out of the house.

"I think there's something going on downstairs," Mayeu said she told Worthington. "I looked downstairs and I could see flames. You couldn't see past the water heater, but you could see a yellow presence."

At that point, Worthington said, the smoke detectors hadn't even started beeping.

"We were actually out of the house before the alarms started going off," Worthington said.

Russ Salway

Very happy to see everyone made it out of the house and were safe. I used to live there and we had a fire there too. My roomate's electric water bed started on fire and it was contained to the room upstairs that it was in. I wasnt home at the time. I wonder if the electrical box in the basement was a FEDERAL box. I heard this could happen to a FEDERAL box. Federal went out of business years ago and anybody who has a Federal electrical box in their basement should have it changed if they can afford to do it. Im not an electrician, but have heard this from several electricians. By the way I didnt own the house on 13 Walnut st. I just rented a room while going to G.C.C.

Oct 30, 2010, 7:20am Permalink

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