Fighting an early Monday fire at this vacant home on West Florida Avenue presented obstacles involving fire hydrants. Firefighters were unable to get this one to work and the other would not shut off after being used. A huge tree also had fallen in the front yard of the home at some earlier time.

YOUNGSTOWN — Two broken fire hydrants near a vacant West Florida Avenue house on fire at 1 a.m. Monday contributed to the unusual nature of the blaze.

The cause of the fire is being investigated and is listed as undetermined.

But the first unusual circumstance was that Capt. Fred Deluca of the Youngstown Fire Department was the first person to notice the fire, which happened less than two blocks from the West Hylda Avenue station where he worked early Monday.

Deluca was in quarters in the back of the fire station and smelled smoke, according to a fire report. The back bay door of the fire station was open, and the fire was visible.

The fire was located at 104 W. Florida Ave. with heavy fire showing on two sides of the home with “rapid fire extension,” according to the report.

“Due to rapidly changing conditions, a defensive attack was taken,” the report states, meaning that firefighters did not try to attack the fire from the inside because of the severity.

Firefighters tried to hook up a hose to a hydrant near the house, but a lug nut on a 4-inch cap broke off the hydrant at 61 W. Florida Ave. Firefighters moved to the 100 block of West Florida and were able to use that hydrant.

But the ladder truck they were trying to use had an issue with the electric water valve, so water could not be delivered to the tower of the truck. Another truck secured a fire hydrant on Trenton Avenue, the side street near the engulfed home.

That enabled firefighters to pull hand lines from the hydrant to the fire to protect utility lines. Another truck was used, and it “knocked the bulk of the fire down.”

“The roof collapsed, and parts of first floor (fell) into basement,” the report states. “All four walls still standing.”

The Youngstown Water Department was called out because both of the fire hydrants on East Florida Avenue needed repairs.

Battalion Chief Jim Drummond, who was not working at the time of the fire, said Monday the hydrant on East Florida Avenue that provided much of the water used to knock down most of the fire malfunctioned at the time firefighters tried to remove the hose from the hydrant.

So, firefighters left a hose attached until the water department arrived to repair it, he said.

Drummond said the issues with the hydrants did not seem to have a significant impact on the ability to fight the fire because the decision to take a “defensive” approach to the fire was made fairly early after firefighters arrived.

When asked whether malfunctioning fire hydrants in the city are much of a problem, he said they are not a big problem, especially when compared to rural areas where there may not be a lot of fire hydrants.

Another unusual fact about the house that caught fire was that a huge tree had recently fallen into the front yard of the home.