ABC15
AN 8,236-sq.ft.HOUSE IN SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, WAS COMPLETELY DESTROYED in a spectacular fire early Friday morning. The fire was discovered around 4 am by neighbors who smelled smoke and took firefighters from Scottsdale and Phoenix nearly eight hours to completely extinguish. The owner was at home sleeping and was safely evacuated by the FF’s.
KPHO-TV
The owner/occupant is a real estate agent who has been trying to sell the property for more than a year. After being listed for $3.9 million, the price has been lowered and relisted since this past February. Before yesterday is was scheduled to be auctioned this coming February to satisfy a mortgage lien of just over $2 million. The fire department says that the house is a total loss.
ABC15
This video report from KSAZ-TV that includes an interview with an FD official gives a good indication of just how large this house was:
AZCentral.com reports:
A Scottsdale ordinance mandates that all single-family homes built after Jan. 1, 1986, be outfitted with sprinkler systems as a safety measure.
(Although) the home, built in 2003, was outfitted with the proper sprinkler system, there were no sprinklers in the attic where the fire appeared to have originated. Firefighters will not be able to determine whether the sprinklers were activated until they return this weekend for their investigation.
There is no early indication of what the cause of the fire was. Nor was it reported whether the house was fully furnished or not. The investigators are beginning their work Saturday morning.
The Associated Press has some raw video of the fire shortly after the FD’s arrival:
