POCATELLO — A second house fire in less than 24 hours was reported at a Beth Street home early Wednesday evening, a smoldering fire that caused smoke damage throughout the home.

    Pocatello Fire Chief David Gates said no one was at home when the fire was reported, but there was a concern early on that teenage children might be in the residence.

    “Our first course of action was to go in and do a primary search to verify that,” Gates said. “We didn’t see anybody in that initial search.”

    The concern people might be in the house meant firefighters had to take a dual approach to battling the blaze, simultaneously sending in people to search the home while sending in a crew to assess the fire and begin work to put it out.

    “Obviously, life threat is our No. 1 concern,” Gates said. “So, as firefighters, we are taught to take calculated risks, and we are also taught to risk more if more is at risk.”

    Although there were no people inside the residence, one family member, a small white dog, was rescued unharmed. It was not clear late Wednesday whether firefighters or a neighbor rescued the dog.

    The call came in shortly before 6 p.m. Wednesday with reports of heavy smoke coming from all the windows in front of the home, Gates said. When crews first arrived, they were told by neighbors of the teenage children who live at the home.

    Confident there was no one in the home after searching it multiple times, firefighters concerns were fully alleviated when the homeowner showed up a few minutes later and told Gates that all the children were with her.

    Gates said the blaze appears to have started in a basement room, which he also said sustained substantial damage.

    “Most of the things that would melt, have melted,” he said, referring to the room of origin. “As far as structural damage, we are going to have to wait to get into the walls. There is smoke damage throughout the house.”

    Gates is uncertain how the fire got started, saying that investigators will have to take a methodical approach to determining the cause

    “This is one of those cases where you have to look at the electrical, was the fireplace used, it’s really a process of elimination,” he said.

    It took about 20 minutes for firefighters to put the fire out.

    Wednesday’s fire was the second in less than 24 hours. On Tuesday evening, a fire was reported at about

10:45 p.m. on West Lander Street in Old Town Pocatello that displaced a woman and her cats and dogs.

    That fire was in the home’s roof and caused serious damage. No one was injured, but the home is reportedly uninhabitable because of the blaze.

    With no place to stay, the Pocatello Fire Department paid for the woman and her animals to stay at a local hotel Tuesday night. The cause of that fire is also under

investigation.