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Multiple alarm fire damages rural home
Shortly after noon Thursday homeowner Cindy Watson returned to her residence at 2724 East CR 300N and noticed that something wasn’t right. A window air-conditioner was askew and the windows were black.
“I got home and parked where I always do by the side of the house when I saw the air-conditioner tilted. It was then that I noticed that window in the house was black. I went to the front door and noticed that those windows were also discolored. It was then that I saw and could smell the smoke, so I called 911,” Watson said.
There was no one home when the fire started. According to Watson, the family had left hours earlier for what they thought was just another day.
“I took the kids to school, my husband went to work in Indianapolis and I returned home with my youngest child and my mother-in-law to find this,” Watson said.
The call for assistance resulted in multiple units arriving on the scene. Some of the first were Glenwood volunteers. They were followed by units from Raleigh, Jackson Township, RMH Ambulance and the Rush County Sheriff’s Department.
An initial concern was that electrical power was still on inside the home, so Duke Energy was also summoned to the scene.
According to the homeowner, the recent fall chill resulted in the family using the wood-burning fireplace in the home earlier in the day.
Watson said there were no flames from the fireplace when the family left the home shortly after 8 a.m.
“It takes a lifetime to build this and get to this point and only a matter of hours or minutes to take it all away — and I’m not talking about the furniture, I mean the baby pictures and other non-replaceable things,” Watson said.
The family had lived in the home for less than a year, having moved in during December 2007.
The fire caused extensive damage to the home and firefighters had to battle the burning floor from a basement in the two-story home as well as the living room area.
There was no cause given for the fire; it is currently under investigation.
Frank Denzler can be contacted at (765) 932-2222 ext. 106 or via e-mail at frank.denzler@rushvillerepublican.com. To add a comment to this story visit our Web site at www.rushvillerepublican.com.
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