Crews extinguish large southern Columbia house fire Sunday morning

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Columbia Fire Department crews were busy Sunday morning extinguishing a house fire in an under-construction home.

According to CFD Captain Wayne Cummins, crews were called to the scene in the 500 block of Dustin Drive around 5 a.m. The house was about 80% engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived.

Cummins said the fire was too dangerous to extinguish from the inside, so crews took a defensive approach and lifted firefighters up in the fire engine's basket to extinguish the flames from above.

"We can get up above the fire and we can reach areas safely that we can't get to on the ground and that's how we were able to get this fire extinguished very quickly once we got here and got water on it," Cummins said.

The crew confirmed no one was hurt. The owners of the home did not come forward during the fire but did get in contact with the fire marshal after the fire was put out.

The fire was extinguished around 8 a.m. with crews clearing the area around 8:25 a.m.

The cause of the fire is still unknown.