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Two fires take three Lincoln structures

March 04, 2009|Michael Broihier

By Michael Broihier

Back-to-back fires took three Lincoln County structures Monday and Tuesday. Firefighters from all over the county rolled in to battle both blazes, but in both instances the buildings were total losses.

Monday morning bitter winds drove flames through a Dog Walk home at 1185 Harness Ridge Road, south of Crab Orchard. A neighbor called the fire in around 9:45 a.m. reporting visible flames. Though firefighters were on scene directly, the home was fully involved when they arrived at the unoccupied residence of Tim McFerron. Firefighters from Lincoln stations 1, 5 and 6, and Waynesburg and Brodhead, assisted at the scene along with East End Rescue.

Lincoln County Fire Chief Danny Glass said the cause of the fire was difficult to determine but would not rule out that a heat lamp McFerron had been using to warm frozen pipes to be the cause. It took almost six hours to declare the fire dead with no appreciable improvement in the blustery, freezing weather conditions.

Another structure fire with visible flames was called in by an alert neighbor Tuesday morning around 9:30. The blaze was originally reported as a single fire in a mobile home at the end of Crawford Lane in Stanford, but in the short time it took the first units to arrive at the property owned by Johnnie and Dana Lear, the fire had spread to the adjoining two story wooden frame house, and both were fully involved. Even before they arrived, fire fighters knew they had their hands full, telling Bluegrass 911 that they could see a large column of dark smoke all the way from the McDonald's on U.S. 150.

Like the Dog Walk fire on the previous day, the narrow road approaching the fire scene was so constricted that tanker trucks were forced to stand off and shuttle in their loads to fuel the pumper truck.

The Lears did not live at the residence. Mrs. Lear used it for her ceramics business.

The stored equipment and supplies in the house made a dangerous situation for firefighters, and they ultimately pulled back and fought the fire from the outside.

The intense damage made the source of the Crawford Lane fire difficult to determine. Mr. Lear said on the scene that he had been at the residence earlier that day to start the furnace that heats both structures to warm up the work spaces before Mrs. Lear began her work at End of the Lane Ceramics. All of the equipment and supplies within the two structures were lost.

Tuesday's fire was another long affair; Lincoln fire units did not begin reporting "back in quarters" until 1:30 p.m.

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