| Fire wrecks Richland home Monday |
By: Darrell Todd Maurina
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Posted: Monday, March 2, 2009 1:17 pm
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Tri-County firefighters from Richland and Hazelgreen firefighters work to extinguish a Monday morning blaze in Richland.
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RICHLAND, Mo. (March 2, 2009) — A Richland family lost their home in a Monday morning blaze.
About 11 a.m., Richland firefighters received a report of a structure fire with smoke and flames showing at 214 East McClurg Ave., which is a small house across from the BNSF railroad tracks.
“When we arrived there were flames coming out the side window, the front window and part of the front door, mostly flames,” said Chief Rick Hobbs of the Tricounty Rural Fire Protection Distirct. “We just went in and knocked the door down and made the initial attack.”
Hobbs, who is a volunteer firefighter but also a city public works employee working just blocks from the blaze, was first on the scene of the fire along with one other volunteer firefighter within three to four minutes of the fire call.
“We just went in and knocked the door down and went in and did the initial attack,” Hobbs said. “When the second engine came in the guys went in and finished doing the knockdown and getting the fire put out.”
Hobbs said the blaze was knocked down within 20 minutes but getting smaller hot spots was still ongoing more than an hour later.
About 12 firefighters from Tri-County and the Hazelgreen Rural Fire Protection District arrived with two pumper-tankers and a command vehicle from Richland and a command vehicle and engine from Hazelgreen. Several Crocker firefighters also arrived with an engine and remained at the Tri-County station for backup. Pulaski County Ambulance District paramedics and Richland police also assisted at the crash scene.
“Hazelgreen was paged first, they were shorthanded today, and Chief (Eric) Price got on the radio and told Comm Center to go ahead and dispatch Crocker,” Hobbs said. “We had a good knockdown; I’ve just got (Crocker) standing by at our station covering our area and Hazelgreen’s area until we get cleared from here.”
The cause hasn’t yet been determined, Hobbs said.
Hobbs said the living room contents were completely burned by the blaze with extensive smoke damage throughout the building and significant heat damage to the adjacent kitchen and bedroom.
“The guy got a few family pictures out that got burned on the edges a bit but are still good pictures; in the kitchen area, anything plastic is melted, so stuff in the kitchen, most of it is destroyed,” Hobbs said.
The family’s names have not yet been released, but Hobbs said the people living in the house were the owners.
“They don’t have any insurance and they’re probably not going to have a place to stay,” Hobbs said. “I’m not sure what they are going to do … I’m going to call Red Cross for them.”
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