Fire consumes home overnight

May 9--Stephen Smalley's family escaped their burning house Friday night, then found the home destroyed Saturday morning.

"We were here watching TV with our son and grandson, we were facing south and all of a sudden, through the drapes I saw fire, it was up on the roof," Smalley said, adding that they noticed the fire around 9 p.m. Friday.

"Immediately, I started down to try to look in the garage, but there was already smoke coming through the door in the living room," he said. "If I'd have opened it up, flames would shoot through."

Smalley, an insurance agent, said he lived in the house at the corner of Park Place and Country Club Road for 13 years. He said the fire had to have started in the garage area, but he does not know how.

"The only thing I've got in there is an old refrigerator," Smalley said.

He said some firefighters looked at a garage door opener as a possible source of the fire.

Smalley, along with his wife, son and grandson, spent Friday night in a hotel. He said nobody was injured.

Assistant Muskogee Fire Chief Kevin Warlick confirmed the fire was reported around 9 p.m. Friday. He said firefighters spent the night putting the flames out. But the fire reignited around 2 p.m.

Smalley said the reignited fire caused even more damage.

"The lady who lives behind us said it was so hot that she walked down the street to get away from it," he said. Neighbors sprayed their roofs with hoses, he said.

"I didn't even know about the second fire until I woke up this morning," Smalley said. "On my phone, I had three calls from the same number at 2 o'clock, so I called them back and it was 9-1-1. That's when they told me there had been additional activity."

Fire had swept through the first floor and into the second floor, causing part of the high-pitched roof to collapse.

"I had no idea when I turned this corner it would look like this," Smalley said. "I started going in this morning, and it was three inches of water and insulation."

He said he first checked family photo albums, and they were fine, and his office suffered smoke damage.

Smalley's wife, Pam Smalley, said the roof and ceiling collapsed into the living room. She showed flowers on a table she had been waiting to plant.

"I don't know if we'll ever be able to get it back together or not," she said. "We have to trust the Lord."

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