Tent fire burns down storage building at Columbus home

Columbus firefighters battled a fire at a home’s storage building Friday afternoon. That was after a neighboring tent went up in flames.

Capt. Mike Wilson with the Columbus Fire Department says firefighters were called to the 4600 block of Autumn Ridge Road at just before 5 on Friday afternoon and found thick black smoke and flames coming from the storage shed. It took firefighters about 15 minutes to get the fire under control, but not before the flames damaged the siding on nearby buildings.

The homeowner said a guest has been staying a tent beside the storage building and had previously been warned about using an extension cord to power a space heater in the tent. Investigators found an extension cord running into the tent from a nearby back porch outlet.

Wilson said the storage building was a total loss and about $9,500 in damage was caused to that and neighboring buildings. The fire remains under investigation.