By CHRIS MEYERS
Staff writer

    Responding to a report of a house fire with flames visible from nearly a quarter of a mile away, Union Township firefighters were relieved to find it was only a small fire in the kitchen.
    Calls came into dispatch at about 11 p.m. for the fire in the 7400 east block of county Road 400 South, with neighbors saying everyone was out of the house, but flames were visible.
    Brian Potts, assistant chief for the UTFD, said an Allen County firefighter near the scene entered the home and doused the fire with water.
    “It wasn’t horribly big. It was a trash can fire with some things around it also being burned,” Potts said.
    He said once the fire was out, the house was ventilated to get the heavy smoke out as quickly as possible.
    Whitley County sheriff’s deputies had responded to the house at about 9:30 p.m. on a report of a domestic situation.
    Dispatch records indicate the husband and children left for the night, and that the wife was intoxicated and stayed at the residence.
    Deputies also responded to the fire scene and transported a female to Parkview Whitley Hospital, although no injuries were reported in the incident.

Four suffer minor injuries in four-car wreck

    Four people suffered minor back injuries Thursday afternoon as a result of a four-car collision on North Main Street in Columbia City.
    According to the crash report, 25-year-old Jill N. Aupperle of Fort Wayne was northbound on Main Street in front of Tractor Supply Company when she was looking at her radio and didn’t see traffic stopped ahead of her.
    Aupperle rear ended a car driven by 40-year-old Columbia City resident Carol S. Cody, who was pushed into the back of a car driven by 35-year-old Jane A. Gibson, also of Columbia City, who then rear ended 69-year-old Alice R. Johnson of Columbia City.
    Aupperle, Cody and Gibson reported back pain as a result of the collision. A passenger in Cody’s car also reported back pain. Johnson did not report any injuries.
    The total amount of damage was estimated between $10,000 and $25,000, according to the report.