– Jody Norwood/Tribune-Courier || Hardin-South Marshall and Aurora-Ross firefighters work to extinguish a structure fire Monday near Pirate's Cove.

Three fires destroy homes, buildings

Mutual aide key
in preventing
spread of blazes

By Jody Norwood
Tribune-Courier News Editor
jnorwood@tribunecourier.com

MARSHALL COUNTY – Fire departments from almost every corner of the county answered calls at three structure fires within the last four days.

“With the mutual-aide, when you have a structure fire you get the primary department and the closest department to where it is gets a call at the same time,” said Possum Trot-Sharpe fire chief Rick Pershing after a Thursday night fire leveled a home on Scale Road. “They called both of us.”

Possum Trot-Sharpe and Palma-Briensburg fire departments responded to the call Thursday night at 11186 Scale Road.

“It started at 6 p.m. and we were here until after (midnight), and then back at five (Friday) morning to watch it.”

Although the cause of the fire is still unknown, neighbors had reported hearing a “boom” prior to seeing the blaze. Pershing said a neighbor saw the fire and knocked on the door to see if anyone was home.

“When no one answered, he backed out,” said Pershing.

Damage to the house was substantial. The top floor of the building had fallen into the first story during the fire. The site continued to smolder the next morning. Firefighters were able to keep the blaze from spreading to other parts of the property or to neighbors’ homes, but faced difficulties from the extremely cold temperatures. Water freezing in the lines was one of the biggest problems responders faced in controlling the fire.

“It’s not exactly something we want to do at nine degrees,” Pershing said. “You can’t set fire trucks here without the pumps freezing up. As soon as we shut off the primary pumper we attacked with, and within 10 minutes the pumps were frozen up on us. They’re useless at that point. And that’s a $10,000 pump in that truck that may or may not work (the next day).

“Fire trucks already have water in them that’s about 60 degrees and it’s okay in the time you drive from the station to here. But once they just set and the water sets up in the lines, in this type of weather it starts freezing in a matter of minutes. Once they’re froze up, they’re froze.”

Pershing said he had spoken with the fire marshal, who determined finding the cause of the fire would be difficult due to the damage. Officals have also contacted the person renting the property and there was no indication anyone was inside the house.

“The owner lived in Paducah,” Pershing said. He was renting the house. The renter was in Colorado. There’s nobody missing and there’s no indication that we need to be looking for anyone.”

Palma-Briensburg firefighters also responded to a call Saturday on 21 Gaston Lane off U.S. 68 West. According to reports, no one was home when a house trailer caught on fire.

Hardin-South Marshall and Aurora-Ross fire fighters battled a multiple structure fire Monday afternoon near Pirate’s Cove. Early indications were that the fire on East Unity Church Road originated in a garage and spread to a house trailer, both of which became fully engulfed within minutes. Responders were dispatched just before 2 p.m.

Firefighters were able to keep the blaze from spreading to nearby structures.