Officials urge residents to be aware of fire hazards this winter, remember 2018 home fires


A New Year’s Day fire in 2018 destroyed this older rock-faced home on the Howards Ridge farm owned by Stan and Janet Taber of Almartha. Sam Overturf, who was renting the house, was not home when the fire started. Volunteers from six area fire departments responded to the blaze, working several hours in bone-chilling, sub-freezing temperatures to contain the fire and keep it from spreading to nearby hay barns and other structures.

Firefighters from four Ozark County fire departments, including Gainesville firefighters Sage McGinnis, left, and John Russo, in front of the tree, responded to a Jan. 23, 2018, fire on Shady Oaks Circle off Highway 181 in Gainesville. The fire was determined to be arson. Another fire occurred at the site Jan. 8, 2019.

Winter’s icy breath made its way across the hills and hollers last weekend, and the cooler temperatures are likely here to stay awhile. With the cold weather comes the need to keep warm, many times in ways that can create a fire danger. Last year five of the 12 major fires reported by the Ozark County Times occurred in January, and most of the others happened during colder months.
Gainesville Volunteer Fire Department chief Ed Dorion told the Times that while many fire safety precautions are common sense, there are some fire dangers that don’t immediately come to mind. Here are a few tips to keep in mind over the next few months.

Clean your dryer vent: Nearly 15,000 house fires are started every year by dryers, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Doiron says it’s something that people easily overlook. Lint and fabric particles build up inside dryer vents, causing a lack of air circulation that traps heat inside, which can cause the dryer to become so hot it will char and can ignite items inside. Doiron suggests cleaning the lint trap every cycle and periodically using a dryer vent cleaning kit that can be purchased at home stores to clean the vents.

Be careful with electric heaters: Electric space heaters can often be a fire hazard. Portable electric heaters are responsible for about 1,200 fires a year, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The CPSC recommends that residents never leave a portable electric space heater on while unattended or sleeping and that they check the heater’s plug, cord, wall outlet and faceplate to ensure they are not hot. The heater should be placed on a level surface; never run a heater’s cord under a rug or carpeting. Doiron adds that extension cords or power strips should never to used to plug in an electrical space heater. Users should make sure the heater is at least 3 feet from any other objects, as the high-powered appliances can cause close items to burst into flames by radiant heat.
“Make sure there’s nothing - no carpeting, curtains, clothing – nearby. Sometimes people will grab their laundry and sit it down in front of the heater to fold. Things like that can be a major issue,” he said.

Be mindful when using wood stoves: Doiron says that residents using a wood-burning stove for heat should have the chimney inspected for cracks or other issues, as well as making sure it is clear and clean. When dumping ashes, residents should avoid dumping them in old flower beds, yards, on their porch or near their home.
“If the wind picks up just a little bit, it can blow the ashes out, which can catch leaves, dry grass or your home on fire,” he said.
Doiron recommends that residents dispose of their ashes in a metal bucket rather than a pile in the yard or other area.  

Don’t leave food unattended: While it seems like common sense, Doiron says it’s common for people to let simmering food sit on the stove while they walk away to do housework or other things. It’s easy to get distracted, forget the stove is on and leave the house. Food left cooking inside pots for long periods of time, cookware that boils dry, oil left to heat and pots with too much liquid can all catch fire. If a fire does result from oil on the stove, it’s important that homeowners avoid using water to try to contain it. Water makes burning oil spatter, spreading the blaze. Instead, put a lid or cover on the pot and call 911 immediately.

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The notable fires listed here, reported in the Times in 2018, caused the destruction of or heavily damaged more than a dozen family homes and took the life of one Ozark County man and several pets. The sobering details of these fires are a good reminder to area residents to be conscious of fire dangers and to consider becoming paid members of their local volunteer fire department. Local volunteer fire departments depend almost entirely on membership dues, and members receive the benefit of firefighters’ efforts free of additional charge. Residents who are non-members could be charged for services involved with fighting fires.
Jan. 1 - New Year’s Day fire in Howards Ridge
A fire destroyed a Howards Ridge home on New Year’s Day in 2018, bringing firefighters from six area fire departments to battle the blaze in sub-freezing temperatures. The older rock-faced home, part of the Howards Ridge farm owned by Stan and Janet Taber of Almartha, was rented at the time to Sam Overturf, who was not in the house when the fire started. The blaze totally destroyed the house - and most of Overturf’s belongings inside. It’s thought that a propane heater used to thaw frozen water pipes in the home earlier in the day may have caused the blaze.

Jan. 5 - Kenneth and Liz Kuk
A fire broke out at Kenneth and Liz Kuk’s Caulfield-area home on County Road 542 on Jan. 5, after ashes from a wood-burning stove caught fire, burning leaves and brush in a 60- to 70-foot path to the Kuks’ basement. Kenneth was at work that morning, and Liz was awakened by their dog Ghost around 7:15 a.m., when she realized the house was filled with smoke. Liz’s cell phone wouldn’t dial out to 911, so she called Kenneth, who called the Ozark County Sheriff’s Department and then called their neighbor, Tecumseh assistant fire chief J.B. Duke. While Kenneth called for help, Liz went out the front door and down to the basement, and carried 18 new puppies into her Jeep to stay warm.
Duke was stiff, sore and swollen from a 15-foot fall he’d had at the Howards Ridge fire four days earlier when he had slipped off an icy ladder. But he quickly pulled on his clothes and raced to the firehouse to get a firetruck and was on scene at the Kuk residence eight to 10 minutes after Kenneth’s call. He nearly had the fire knocked out by the time the rest of the firefighters arrived. Although the fire damaged the home, it was still standing. Servicemaster cleaning came to clean the smoke damage from the home.

Jan. 6 - Explosion at Evans Apartments
The day after the Kuks’sfire, John Evans was working on the propane furnace in the attic of one of the six apartments in the building he owns on Highway 160 at J Highway, when an explosion set the building on fire. The fire marshal investigating the fire said that Evans had turned the gas off while he was working on the furnace, but when he turned it back on, the explosion occurred. The explosion blew the sheet rock out of the wall of an upstairs bedroom of the apartment, and Evans sustained burns on his face and hands. He was taken by Air Evac to a Springfield hospital, where he had surgery and skin grafts. The building was heavily damaged, including two apartments that were completely distorted. After the fire was out and the fire marshal completed his investigation around 8 p.m., the firefighters left the scene. Then, sometime later that night, the fire rekindled. Firefighters returned to the apartments around 10:22 p.m. and battled the blaze for another hour and a half.

Jan. 23 - Apartment arson
An apartment on Shady Oaks Circle, formerly known as Wagon Wheel Court, off Highway 181 in Gainesville sustained heavy damage after an arson fire was set Jan. 23. A concerned citizen called the Ozark County Sheriff’s Department around 10:30 p.m. that night to report the strong odor of smoke in the area. A deputy was dispatched but was unable to find anything burning. Sometime later that night, next door neighbor Michael Denton called the sheriff’s department to report flames coming from the window of an apartment. Gainesville, Lick Creek, Caney Mountain and Timber Knob VFDs were dispatched to the fire. Firefighters were unable to save the structure, which was fully engulfed on arrival, but they did keep the fire from spreading to neighboring structures that stood about 15 to 18 feet from the burned apartment building. The fire was ruled incendiary, or set, by the Missouri Department of Public Safety.

Jan. 29 - Caulfield mobile home burns
A Caulfield resident was transported by ambulance to Ozarks Medical Center in West Plains for treatment of smoke inhalation on Jan. 29 after a fire broke out at her home on County Road 346 off H Highway near Caulfield. The fire was called into the Ozark County Sheriff’s Department at 9:45 a.m., and Caulfield VFD responded as the primary fire department. Bakersfield, Tecumseh and Rural Howell County VFDs responded in mutual aid. The blaze was rolling when firefighters arrived on scene, but the mobile home was not fully engulfed. The cause of the fire was unknown. The trailer was saved, but one bedroom, the master bedroom and an add-on room had heavy fire damage from the blaze. The front room had moderate fire damage, and the other bathroom and bedroom had smoke damage.

Feb. 15 - Fires in national forest take
the home of 84-year-old Protem man
Federal, state, county and local firefighters responded to nine wildfires in the Mark Twain National Forest’s districts scattered throughout southern Missouri on Feb. 15. The largest blaze was the Rozell fire in the Protem area of Taney County, just over the Ozark County line near Highways 160 and 125. The fire was first reported at 12:15 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15, and the heavy smoke it produced forced nearby Mark Twain School to dismiss classes at 2 p.m. that day. More than 100 area firefighters and emergency management personnel from the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the U.S. Forest Service, Missouri Department of Conservation and area fire departments responded to the Rozell fire. Helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft dropped water and fire retardant on the blazes. When the fire reached Les Tennis’ house, Tennis attempted to put it out with a water hose, but the flames rapidly took over the home and it was burned to the ground. The Rozell fire burned more than 500 acres.

March 11 - Dogs perish in fire that destroys
couple’s Gainesville-area home
Gainesville-area residents Richard and Cindi Miller lost their home off AA Highway to a fire on March 11, shortly after Cindi had been admitted to Ozarks Medical Center in West Plains for treatment of pneumonia. The fire was discovered just before 8:30 p.m. that Sunday when daughter Brenda Miller, who lives nearby, came to the home to put a load of laundry in the dryer. She had been there about 45 minutes earlier to start the load of wash, but when she came the second time she saw flames in the kitchen of the home. Caney Mountain VFD was dispatched, and Gainesville, Lick Creek and Tecumseh VFDs responded in mutual aid. Water became an issue, and firefighters had to shuttle equipment back and forth to a hydrant near the cedar plant off Highway 160 to haul water to the scene. Ozark County Sheriff’s Deputy Curt Dobbs, a state-certified fire investigator, said firefighters on scene reported that the fire appeared to be centered in the middle and toward the rear of the home, where the kitchen is located. Dobbs said the exact origin was unknown due to the extensive damage, but the fire was not believed to be suspicious. Cindi Miller later told the Times that four family dogs perished in the fire. Another dog was saved by Sage McGinnis, who was a Gainesville VFD firefighter at the time. Firefighters cleared the scene around 1:30 a.m. Monday morning.

April 15 - Bakersfield man dies in Sunday morning fire
The body of Bakersfield resident Charles Fienhold, 61, was found in the burned-out motorhome that served as Fienhold’s permanent residence Sunday, April 15. Authorities were alerted to the fire about 5:30 a.m. after Fienhold’s brother, John Fienhold, woke up and saw smoke and flames coming from his brother’s motorhome and called the sheriff’s department. John’s camper home was parked about 5 feet from his brother’s trailer. The first firefighters on scene reported seeing smoke coming from the motorhome’s doorway and flames coming out of the roof vent. John Fienhold was standing in the doorway with a garden hose, spraying what water he could on the fire. Firefighters wearing self-contained breathing apparatus entered the motorhome and knocked out the windows to let the smoke out. Soon afterward, they found Charles Fienhold’s body.

May 13 - House fire mars Mother’s Day for Paul and Annette Lane
Paul and Annette Lane were working in the detached garage next to their home south of Wasola May 13 when Annette headed inside to get a drink. As she approached the door, she thought the house looked strangely dark though the window. Then when she opened the door, black smoke came billowing out. The double-wide home the Lanes had lived in for 20 years – since their previous home burned – was on fire. Annette quickly called 911, summoning the Wasola Volunteer Fire Department, whose board Annette serves on. Brixey-Rockbridge VFD and Gainesville VFD responded in mutual aid. Paul tried putting the fire out with a water hose, but the electrical fire had knocked out the electricity – and the power to the well pump.

July 5 - Lightning sparks blaze that
destroys Caulfield-area home
Lightning sparked a July 5 house fire on Highway 160 west of Caulfield that destroyed the home of an Ozark County couple. Caulfield VFD chief Shannon Sisney said firefighters used more than 40,000 gallons of water as they actively fought the blaze that started when lightning from a late-afternoon thunderstorm struck the roof of the two-story log-sided home. Tecumseh, Bakersfield, Cloud 9 Ranch and Howell Rural fire departments responded in mutual aid. Tecumseh VFD assistant fire chief J.B. Duke was the first firefighter on scene, about five minutes after his department was dispatched at 6:53 a.m. Duke told the Times he was relieved to see the older homeowners outside the home when he arrived, because he knew the man who lived in the home was in a wheelchair, and he wanted to make sure they were safe. Duke found smoke coming from all four corners of the attic, and within 10 minutes, when the other fire departments arrived, fire was showing through the shingle roof of the home’s front room. Duke was able to get a side-by-side ATV and a few other items out of the garage, but smoke was heavy and all of the couple’s other belongings were lost to the blaze. Flames went from just visible to fully engulfed in a  few minutes, even before the first firetruck arrived on scene.
“So even with 10 trucks and 30 firefighters, it took time to get it under control,” Sisney told the Times shortly after the fire.
The house was a total loss, but firefighters were able to save two outbuildings on the property.

Aug. 26 - House fire east of Gainesville airport
brings response from five VFDs
A fire east of Gainesville Memorial Airport destroyed a house on Air Strip Lane on Aug. 26. The fire was just outside the Gainesville city limits and in the Caney Mountain VFD district. Caney Mountain VFD was dispatched as the primary department, and Lick Creek, Caney Mountain, Tecumseh and Gainesville VFDs responded in mutual aid. No injuries were reported. The house, which appeared to be unoccupied, was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived. The fire had spread to nearby woods, but those blazes were quickly knocked down. The cause of the fire was unknown.

Oct. 17 - Fast-moving fire destroys empty Theodosia home in Holiday Hills
subdivision
A fast-moving fire destroyed an unoccupied Theodosia home Oct. 17. Theodosia Area Volunteer Fire Department volunteer Allen Edgington said he was alerted to the fire on Blueridge Drive, about two blocks from his own home in the Holiday Hills neighborhood, by Jay Torry, who drove to Edgington’s home a little after 9:30 a.m. Edgington hadn’t noticed smoke or been notified of the nearby fire. He radioed Ozark County Sheriff’s Department dispatcher Ken Burnett, asking him to tone out Theodosia Area VFD, as well as Pontiac/Price Place and Thornfield VFDs for mutual aid. TAVFD was shorthanded, with several personnel out of the area, and firefighter Michael Atkins was the only other TAVFD volunteer who was able to respond. He and Edgington met at the firehouse, about a half mile from Edgington’s home, to pick up the department’s tanker truck and then hurried back to the fire. When Atkins and Edgington arrived with the TAVFD tanker a few minutes later, the house was on the ground. The fire marshal was called to investigate, but the damage was too extensive to determine a point of origin or cause. The structure was the long-time home of Jim Maddoz, who moved to Arkansas several months before his death in October 2017. At the time of the fire, the home was owned by Tommy and Glenda smith of Cabool, who were in the process of renovating the space.

Dec. 19 – Fire destroys dad and daughter’s
Caulfield home
Caulfield resident John Wells and his 9-year-old daughter, Ellie, were coming home after a visit to Wells’ parents, Billy and Kelly Wells, Wednesday evening, Dec. 12, when they noticed the glow of a fire lighting up the night sky. “At first I thought the neighbors had a brush fire,” Wells told the Times. “But we got closer, and we could see it was our house.” Three people passing by had already called 911; they helped Wells save a four-wheeler, a three-wheeler and a dirt bike from the carport, along with some tools that were in a nearby shed. But almost everything else was lost as the frame house was destroyed in the blaze, including their Christmas tree and the presents beneath it that Ellie had bought for her dad, grandparents and other relatives and friends. The Wells home, northeast of Bakersfield, is  just over the line in Howell County off YY Highway east of Highway 101. Caulfield Volunteer Fire Department was the lead responder, with mutual aid from Bakersfield, Tecumseh and Howell County Rural VFDs. Caulfield VFD chief Shannon Sisney told Wells he believed the fire had an electrical cause and that it probably started in Ellie’s bedroom but he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what sparked the blaze.

Ozark County Times

504 Third Steet
PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

Phone: (417) 679-4641
Fax: (417) 679-3423