The fire was reported at 4:10 p.m. when smoke was spotted coming from the house at 221 S. Fourth St.

No one was home, according to Fire Chief Matt Price.

He said the fire was in a living room on the second floor of the two-story house and involved a relatively small area.

Firefighters took a hoseline up an exterior staircase and entered the house via a deck attached to the second floor.

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea
Fort Dodge firefighters take a hoseline into the second floor of a house at 221 S. Fourth St. Tuesday afternoon.

Price said the cause of the fire remained under investigation.

Fort Dodge police and Webster County sheriff’s deputies also responded.

The house is owned by the Wilson family of Fort Dodge, according to online records of the Webster County Assessor’s Office. It was built in 2004 and is in the Soldier Creek neighborhood south of downtown. That area was the site of a major redevelopment effort that started in 1998 and is full of mostly newer homes.