ELYRIA — Simultaneous fires overnight in Elyria left the Fire Department “stretched beyond thin,” according to Capt. Joseph Pronesti.

Luckily for everyone involved, both fires were vacant homes.

The call for the first fire, in the 900 block of Foster Avenue in Elyria, came in about 3:15, Pronesti said, and firefighters arrived to find the home fully engulfed in flames.

Foster Avenue fire:

Photos of Maple Street fire below.

Firefighters fought the fire defensively, which means they focused on containing the fire and protecting surrounding homes and did not make an interior attack or attempt to save the home itself.

Pronesti said the department did not yet have an address for the home because it had collapsed, but he said it was a 2½-story home. He called the home a total loss but didn’t have an estimate of its value.

A second fire call came in at 3:55 a.m. at 346 Maple Street, also a vacant single-family home, Pronesti said.

Eleven firefighters were on duty overnight, Pronesti said, and they were all on the scene of the first fire, so the department had to rely on off-duty firefighters being called in and mutual aid from surrounding communities to get to the scene on Maple Street.

“We had no resources,” Pronesti said. “We had to call mutual aid for the second fire. There was really nobody able to go, so we had to rely on other towns to go straight to the fire.”

A “reserve apparatus” staffed by three Elyria firefighters called in from home arrived on scene in 6 minutes, Pronesti said.

“But that’s just three guys,” he said. “They had to wait for mutual aid, which took about 10 to 15 minutes to get there.”

Firefighters from Lorain, Carlisle Township and Sheffield Village responded.

The back of that home was fully engulfed, Pronesti said, and the fire spread to the attic and walls.

He estimated damage was about $40,000. A Carlisle Township firefighter was hurt when he got glass in his foot, but he’s OK, Pronesti said.

Causes of both fires remain under investigation, Pronesti said. He’s just relieved no lives were on the line.

“Fire and time go hand in hand,” Pronesti said. “If they were occupied structures, obviously it’s huge. Fire doubles in size every minute. It’s a serious issue.

“We can’t rely on off-duty people coming from their home in a city our size to start a fire attack and rescue,” he said.

View Elyria fires March 17 in a larger map