At 2:35 am Saturday Liberal firefighters were paged to 1440 Jewell Ave. for a report of a fire in the backyard spreading to the back of the residence. First arriving units found the rear of the residence engulfed in fire. The fire had also spread to the fence and a neighboring garage immediately to the west. Upon extinguishment of the exterior and exposure fires, firefighters found and extinguished a significant amount of fire that had extended into the attic area of the residence through the eaves.

The fire was controlled in approximately 30 minutes, however firefighters remained on scene extinguishing hotspots and conducting an investigation until 5:08 am. The residence, which was vacant at the time of the fire suffered heavy fire damage to the exterior and attic of the structure and smoke damage throughout. A portion of the fence was destroyed and the neighboring garage suffered exterior fire damage. No injuries were reported at this incident. The fire appears to have originated in or around a hot tub behind the residence and burn undetected for a considerable length of time allowing it to spread to the surrounding structures and fence.

The Liberal Fire Department responded with a total of 14 personnel. Also responding and assisting at the fire were the Liberal Police Department and Seward County EMS. All fire units were clear of the scene and returned to service at 5:31 am.