Fire consumes woman’s home

Jan. 28--The owner of a house that was destroyed in a fire early Friday morning is determined to gut it and start all over.

"My brother is a contractor, and it may take me a year or so to replace it, but I can't replace my dog," Mary Hill said.

Hill got up around 6:30 a.m. Friday and started a fire in her wood stove in her house on Independence Street because that's her source of heat.

"I walked into the kitchen to get my coffee, turned around and saw red stuff falling to the floor and then the ceiling burst into flames," Hill said.

She grabbed her purse and with her 4-year-old pit bull, Moonshine, behind her she forced the back glass door open.

"I could tell Moonshine was behind me because I could feel him," Hill said.

But when she opened the door there was a lot of smoke, and the dog ran back into her bedroom and hid under the bed.

"It probably didn't take five minutes to destroy my house," Hill said.

She had no insurance.

"There had been squirrels in between the ceiling and the wall, and I think the squirrels got insulation too close to the flue," she said.

The flue was double insulated.

Assistant Fire Chief Stanley Perkins said firetrucks arrived at 6:50 a.m., and by 7:20 a.m. had the fire extinguished.

"Smoke was coming out of every corner or crack and fire was coming out of the front door area," Perkins said.

Perkins estimated it would take $70,000 to replace the house.

When firefighters arrived, they saw toys in the front yard and began a search of the house. Hill told them that she was the only one living there. She takes care of three grandchildren, ages 2, 7 and 9, when her daughter works.

After the fire was extinguished, firefighters used exhaust fans to pull the smoke out of the house. Fire officials contacted the American Red Cross for her and treated her burned arm, Perkins said.

Hill is living with her daughter but wants to apply for emergency housing Monday. She lost everything in the fire, even the 2-year-old's bed, she said.

"Stuff can be replaced. It's just going to take me forever," Hill said.

Reach Mark Hughes at (918) 684-2908 or mhughes@muskogeephoenix.com.

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