In a continuation of an unusually busy stretch of batting house fires, the Houston Rural Fire Department responded to two more blazes Sunday.
Houston Rural Chief Don Gaston said four trucks and 11 men answered a call at about 7 a.m. for a fire at a Union Road residence owned by Gary Allen. Gaston said the blaze was started by a lightning strike, and firefighters responded in time to save most of the structure.
“We fought that thing for a good two to three hours, and a couple of times we thought it was long gone,” Gaston said. “The fire went up one of the walls and into the attic, and there wasn’t really any way to get to it. The only way we could was to have some boys with breathing apparatus up there.
“But we finally conquered it, and other than the big hole we cut in the roof and gable areas we knocked out so we could get water into it, the house is mostly standing and in good shape. But it did have a good amount of damage done to it.”
An elderly couple living in the two-story home got out safely, and because the fire was mainly contained to the upstairs portion, fire personnel and others in the scene managed to save many of their possessions from the bottom portion.
“We kept the bottom vented out with fans.” Gaston said, “There were a lot of people there, and other than getting a bit wet, it was safe enough that they pretty well got all their stuff out. Most of the time we can’t do that and it doesn’t happen that way.”
The Cabool Fire Department was called in for assistance and brought two trucks and five men.
“They brought water, which helped a lot,” Gaston said.
Evidence of lightning was very apparent at the scene, Gaston said.
“There’s no doubt lightning ran in on it,” he said. “It hit outside on the meter pole on the west end of the house and blew a hole in the ground a foot around at the bottom of the pole.”
When Houston Rural personnel returned to the fire station, another call came in before they could even finish cleaning and organizing gear.
“Everybody was hungry, and we were trying to regroup and this call comes in,” Gaston said. “We all just said ‘oh, no.’”
This time it was a mobile home owned by Rhonda Ramsey on Fisher Drive that had caught fire. Gaston said several trucks and firefighters responded at 11 a.m., and the blaze was snuffed before much damage had occurred.
“I have no idea what started it,” Gaston said, “but it was in the kitchen area and burned up a table and up beside a wall. We had to punch a hole in the floor to get at some fire that was down under, but overall the damage was pretty minimal.”
The Sunday morning flurry of activity was made even tougher due to the absence of five department members who were attending the annual Winter Fire School hosted by the University of Missouri Extension’s Fire and Rescue Training Institute in Columbia.
Gaston said the increased house fire activity this winter isn’t limited to the Houston area.
“I’ve talked to the Cabool chief, and he said they’ve had a lot of house fires,” he said, “and Mountain Grove has had a lot of house fires. It seems like everybody’s been extremely busy this winter. It taxing on everything we have.
“It’s unreal.”
Gaston said the good news is that no bodily harm took place in either Sunday fire.
“But I’m ready for this stuff to end,” he said. “We’re tired.”
There’s no doubt lightning ran in on it,” he said. “It hit outside on the meter pole on the west end of the house and blew a hole in the ground a foot around at the bottom of the pole.”