The Manhattan Fire Department has placed the damage estimate from a fire at a 3114 Gary Avenue residence in Manhattan  at $200,000…..$150,000 to the structure and another $50,000 for the contents. 

No one was home at the time of the fire about noon on Thursday. Two dogs and one cat were rescued from the building.

The building owner is Jeanette Cukjati of Girard, Kansas.

When firefighters arrived on the scene they found smoke and fire visible from the two-story single family residence. They entered the building, performed a search, and attempted to control the blaze from the interior of the structure. With wind gusts of 30 mile per hour and the roof collapsing, crews were forced out of the building, and then had to fight the fire from the exterior. The fire reached a second alarm before it was contained within approximately one hour.

The Fire Department listed the cause of the fire as accidental due to discarded smoking materials.