PHILLIPS — Firefighters were called to a 109 Main St. home Tuesday afternoon after friends of the tenant stopped by and discovered the oil-furnace was on fire, said Fire Chief  James Gould.

The apartment-home owned by James Engels was leased but the tenant was not home when friends stopped by at about 2:30 p.m. and noticed smoke filling the home.

Realizing the furnace was on fire, they took buckets, filled them with snow and dumped them on the furnace after calling for firefighters, he said. They did manage to put the fire out on the exterior of the furnace but firefighters needed extinguishers to contain the remaining fire on the inside boiler.

“We were lucky especially since there were no smoke detectors inside the home, ” he said of what could have easily been a structure fire.

Gould attributed the cause of the fire to a malfunction that provided too much oil in the fire box. It ignited with some force blowing the exhaust stove pipe out of the chimney, he said.

No one was hurt but the furnace will have to be replaced before the tenant can move back in. Gould did not have the tenant’s name. There was a lot of smoke in the home but no other damage.

Strong firefighters were asked to stand by their station for backup until the Phillips crew could determine whether the fire had spread throughout the home.

“His friends did all the right things — they called for help and kept throwing snow on the oil furnace till we could get there,” he said.

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