Dateline: December 7, 2006

Pre-dawn fire destroys garage, two vehicles

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

An early morning blaze destroyed a garage and cost a Clarendon family two vehicles and countless tools December 1.

Dispatchers received the report of the fire at 4:35 a.m. at Fourth and Parks, and the tenants of the property learned their garage was on fire when the call went out over the scanner.

“The tones on the scanner woke me up,” said Somer Ballard, who had been sleeping until that point.

Ballard said she understood that a passerby on US 287 saw the fire from the highway and made the call to 911.

Twelve firemen with the Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department responded, according to First Assistant Chief Jeremy Powell. The department brought the blaze under control after an hour and 15 minutes in weather estimated at 17ºF.

Ballard’s husband, Tony, is a volunteer fireman and did the best he could to help save the garage, she said.

Powell said Monday that the official cause of the fire is still under investigation, but Ballard said that a wood burning stove in the garage is thought to have been where it started.

The Ballards lost two vehicles in the fire, one of which was very valuable.

“We lost our ’99 GMC Sierra pickup that was all decked out to go to (car) shows,” she said. “It had everything – the wheels, the stereo, you name it.”

The couple was waiting on an insurance adjustor to look at the pickup to see what they might get for it, but the other vehicle in the garage was not insured.

“That was his old Volkswagon Tinker Toy, and I am not sorry to see it go,” she said.

Ballard said she is not sure if any of her husband’s tools will be salvageable, but she did say the couple did not have renter’s insurance for the contents of the garage.