Home suffers smoke damage

PHOTO BY JIM LOWE Fire struck at the Morgan Roberts residence at 807 Casbeer St. Monday afternoon. Officials determined lint in a dryer was the cause of the fire. The house sustained heavy smoke damage. No one was home at the time of the blaze.

A fire that began in a dryer Monday afternoon at 807 Casbeer St. damaged the owners' living room and left heavy smoke damage in other rooms.

Morgan Roberts returned home in the afternoon and started a load of clothes in his dryer, which sits in a laundry area outside his bedroom. Roberts then left his residence. His wife, Angela Roberts, also was away from home when the blaze started.

The dryer did not appear to be properly ventilated, City Fire Marshal Reece Oestreich said, and lint caught fire as the clothes were cycling in the dryer.

The Lampasas Fire Department received the call at 2:22 p.m. and quickly searched the house for occupants. Neighbors had seen Roberts enter the home but did not notice him leave, Oestreich said. Firefighters suppressed the fire within five minutes of arriving on the scene, he added.

The living room and part of a bedroom sustained the most direct fire damage, said the fire marshal.

Along with one fire engine and 10 firefighters, four officers from the Lampasas Police Department responded.