West Fargo, N.D. (KFGO) - A holiday ham in a smoker is to blame for a small deck fire in West Fargo Wednesday morning.
West Fargo Fire Chief Dan Fuller said at 8:27 a.m. a neighbor spotted flames coming from a deck at 2115 2nd Ave and called authorities.
When crews arrived, they found a smoker fully involved. They quickly put out the fire within minutes and cut part of the deck out to prevent continuing smolder or future rekindle.
"The owners were home," Chief Fuller said. "And they had been checking on the smoker all night and all this morning. And it just took a brief second to catch fire and burn up. It was a fairly quick event for them, they looked back out to double check the smoker was operating properly and it was on fire. They went to call 911 and we were walking around the corner."
Chief Fuller says the family had been cooking a ham in the smoker for the holidays. He adds a malfunction in the smoker caused the small fire.
Damage is estimated to be around $2,000.