TROY — A home on Barker Road sustained significant damage from an electrical fire Friday, officials said.

Fire Chief Daniel Nealley said the fire started in an electrical box and spread quickly, as the building was very old. He said the building once was the town’s original post office but now is a residence. One person was home at the time of the fire, and nobody was injured, he said.

A firefighter throws burned items out a second-story window where fire destroyed a home Friday on Barker Road in Troy. Staff photo by David Leaming

Assistant Fire Chief Alec Reynolds said flames and smoke were coming from two-story wood-frame home late Friday morning.

Reynolds said the fire might have started in basement. Fighting the blaze was a challenge because of a metal roof, Reynolds said, and the fire crawled throughout walls. Nealley also mentioned the tin roof as an obstacle that made fighting the fire hard. He said firefighters had to work from the inside of the building.

Nealy said probably 30 firefighters from seven departments were at the scene, including Unity, Freedom, Detroit, Pittsfield and others. Crews were on the scene for about three hours.

The fire was reported by a neighbor, Nealley said, who came over with a fire extinguisher to try to douse the flames.

“It traveled fast,” Nealley said of the fire. “It was an old building.”

The house is uninhabitable and will have to be torn down, as it sustained major fire, smoke and water damage, the chief said. However, Nealley said firefighters were able to save many of the possessions from the first floor.

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