Danville firefighters were called to a house fire at 511 Russell St. shortly before 3 p.m. Tuesday.

The fire seemed to be confined to the upstairs portion of an addition at the back of the older home and spread to the attic area, said Danville Fire Chief Ken Pflug.

As firefighters were working on putting out the blaze, the home’s resident, Chris Hawkins was standing on the sidewalk watching. He said no one was at home when neighbors called 911 and reported smoke coming from the back of the house.

He was on his way back from Lexington where he had just picked up his teenage daughter, Hawkins said.

Pflug said 10 or 11 Danville firefighters were working on the scene and had put out the main fire by about 4 p.m. Then they began searching for fire within the walls and ceiling.

“That’s the hard part,” Pflug said. The balloon framing of the older house caused the fire to spread upwards, he said.

Kentucky Utilities was requested on the scene to turn electric services off to the house and Atmos Energy came to cut off the gas.

Danville firefighters asked the Boyle County Fire Department to cover all other calls within the city while they fought the fire on Russell Street, according to scanner traffic.