Dateline: April 17, 2008

Blaze destroys family's home last week 

A Clarendon family is counting its blessings after a Friday evening blaze consumed their two-story home on Bond Street.

Misti Watson says her family is in the process of moving into a rent house and that people have been very generous.

“We’re doing pretty good, and we’ve gotten a lot of clothes,” she said. “A lot of people helped us get stuff out of the garage, laundry room, and kitchen. We’re just trying to round up some furniture now. It could have been a lot worse.”

Watson had left home Friday about 5:45 with her four kids – twin girls Tristen and Kristen, 11, son Brady, 7, and son Ayden, 3 – and headed for Brady’s ball practice. Watson’s husband was working the graveyard shift at the Celanese plant in Pampa. Later, she picked up a pizza for dinner and was going to drop it off at the house before going to rent a movie.

“When I came in, the house was full of smoke,” Watson said.

She called 911, and the Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department was dispatched at 8:09 p.m.

“They got here in six minutes and 22 seconds,” Watson said. “I was pretty impressed by that.”

City Fire Marshall Kelly Hill said the fire started in a bathroom on the first floor near the center of the house.

“It was almost definitely electrical,” Hill said. “They had previously had some electrical issues, and it’s pretty obvious where it started on the bathroom counter.”

Hill said Watson entered the kitchen through the garage and saw the smoke. Neighbor Eddy Eads later entered the house through the front door with a garden hose and tried to put out the fire.

“He could see some clothes on fire in the bathroom floor,” Hill said. But after Eads doused the clothes with water, the smoke soon became too intense, Hill said.

The fire vented into the walls and got between the first and second floors of the home, which made fighting it that much harder.

“Once it’s in the walls, you don’t know exactly where it is.”

Firefighters also had to contend with a nonfunctioning fire hydrant on the corner of Watson’s block. Hoses were run two and half blocks to Fifth and Bugbee to the nearest functioning hydrant.

“That hurt us. We couldn’t get any pressure at first,” Hill said. “I’m not saying it could have turned out any better, but it hurt us.”

Hill also said the home’s construction and the location of the fire were the main problems.

“After we looked at it, I don’t think this house could have been saved even if it had been in the middle of Dallas, Texas, with all their equipment and personnel.”

First Assistant Chief Jeremy Powell said ten units and 21 firemen responded to the fire, and they remained on the scene for more than four hours. His report says the fire was likely burning for more than half an hour before it was discovered.

Watson’s husband is awaiting a transfer later this year to Houston, and his company was paying the costs of selling their home. The family had been spending a lot of time making improvements to the home – replacing windows and painting inside – to make it more attractive for buyers.

“I had a lot of pictures and keepsakes in boxes because I didn’t want them in the way while I was remodeling, so we still have a lot of that,” Watson said.

She’s also grateful that the fire didn’t occur while her family was asleep.

“The girls’ rooms were upstairs, and with the location of the fire we might not have been able to get them out,” she said. “We’re very fortunate.”