Fire destroys 2 homes in Plains

Three minutes is all it took to destroy about everything two Plains families possessed in the world.

At 1:28 p.m. Thursday, a call went out to the local fire departments that a children’s fort was on fire in the back of Rosemary Coupe’s yard on Fourth Street. When the Plains Rural Fire Department arrived at the scene about six minutes later, the fire had spread to the shed in the backyard of Coupe’s neighbors the Bakers, according to the Plains Rural Chief Lee Mercier. “When we got there the fort and the shed were completely collapsed and the radiant heat from the shed had melted the seal on the Baker’s oil tank and started to melt the siding on their house,” Mercier said. He said when the fire department arrived at the Bakers, fuel from the tank was pouring on the ground. Once they saw the magnitude of the fire they called the dispatch to send a page calling for all available city and rural firefighters.

Keith Baker said once he saw the smoke from the fort he ran in his backyard with a hose, but it was already too late. “Within three minutes it was just shooting flames,” he said. “My goodness, it went right to the porch.”

Coupe, who lives at her house with her two grandchildren 15-year-old Lyann and 13-year-old Joshua Miller. She said her daughter had been eating lunch at her house and when she left she noticed smoke coming from her backyard. “In three minutes, both houses were shooting flames 20 to 30 feet in the air,” she said. “We got out of there with just the clothes on our back.”

“It hasn’t hit yet,” Coupe said as she watched the firefighters continue to fight the billowing black smoke coming from the house. She said the fire was going to be especially tough on her grandchildren because they lost all the memorabilia of their father Joshua Miller who passed away. “We didn’t get anything, not even her prom pictures,” she said. Coupe said she has lived in the house for 12 years. She said she just quit running a daycare out of the home two weeks ago. She said if she was still running the daycare there would have been six or seven children at her house at the time of the fire.

As of Monday, the cause of the fire is still unknown, according to Plains Police Chief Shawn Emmett. Emmett said all that has been determined is that the fire started in the clubhouse. He said an investigator from Spokane is scheduled to inspect the scene Monday.

Mercier said that once the second page went out all the fire departments sent all of their available sources to the scene. “Everything we could get out the door was there,” he said. According to Mercier, there were eight suppression vehicles at the scene, 13 rural firefighters, 10 city firefighters and at least nine EMTs.

The Plain City Volunteer Fire Department was at the scene for six and a half hours and then called back the next day after somebody saw smoke rising from the houses, according to captain Joe Sheppard. Sheppard said the reason the firefighters were at the scene so long was because how hot the fire was burning. “It was so hot we couldn’t get too close. Once it kind of calmed down, we were able to cut some vents and get some direct water to it,” he said. “It died down after that.”

“Everybody was really exhausted when we got done,” said Sheppard. He said Plains firefighter John Dossett was taken to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. He said Dossett didn’t want to go and was released shortly after he arrived.

Mercier said another thing that made the fire complicated to fight was that there was a false ceiling between the roof. He said once the fire got between the false ceiling and the roof they couldn’t reach it.

Both Mercier and Sheppard said that all agencies at the scene worked well together. “Everybody did a great job. We all worked together and everybody was where they should be,” he said.

Sheppard said that both houses were destroyed, but they should be able to salvage some personal belongings from the fire. He said that it looked like the Baker’s China hutch and their antique piano looked like it had been saved. Thursday after the fire had been put out, Coupe said it looked like maybe some of her pictures would be okay and some personal heirlooms were also saved.

Many locals were also at the scene trying to help in anyway possible, whether if it was grabbing belongings out of the houses or grabbing a garden hose to make sure the fire didn’t spread to the other neighboring houses. Wade Nichols, who was working at a nearby construction site, grabbed a hose to stop the fire. He said when the construction crew saw the smoke they all rushed down to the houses to help in anyway they could. “We did what we could,” he said.

“People came out of nowhere to help,” said Patty Coe, who lives behind the Bakers and Coupe. “Anybody who saw it was coming to help,” she said. “I bet you there was a hundred people if there was one,” she said.

The Sunset Hills Funeral Home is collected household items and clothing for the two families. Donations can be dropped off at the funeral home at 300 S Willis at anytime. Accounts have also been set up for the family at Rocky Mountain Bank.