A historic home was destroyed and two people were displaced by a fire at 14001 Kingsland Road in rural De Soto on Tuesday (Jan. 30), said Fire Chief Paul Mayer of the Rural Fire Protection District.
The two-story home, which owners said included part of the original Kingsland farmhouse, was reduced to blackened logs, rubble and ash, he said.
“In the original part (of the house) were big black oak logs,” Mayer said.
The homeowner said the house predated many of the Century Farms in the area, Mayer reported.
A woman was home at the time of the fire.
She told fire officials that she was inside and saw smoke through the window and thought there was a fire outside the building, Mayer said.
“She went outside and around the building and didn’t see any fire. When she opened the enclosed porch on the back of the house, smoke hit her and she realized the house was on fire,” he said.
She managed to escape with three dogs. However, another dog and possibly a cat perished in the fire.
The woman had to go to a neighbor’s house two doors down to call 911, Mayer said.
“She said when she got there, she turned around and saw the whole back of the house was on fire,” he said.
Unfortunately, the call to De Soto Rural Fire was further delayed because the house is close to the border between Jefferson County and Washington County, and the 911 call bounced off a Washington County cell phone tower and Washington County Dispatch got the call first.
De Soto Rural firefighters received the official call at 10:37 a.m., and the home is 12 miles from De Soto Station 1, Mayer said.
When firefighters arrived at 10:52 a.m., they found the house filled with fire, he said.
“The fire had a good start already,” Mayer said. “Everything was involved. A corner of the garage was starting to light off.”
A hot 500-gallon propane tank was sitting next to the house, he said.
“We didn’t know it then, but a neighbor said it popped off before we got there,” Mayer said.
Propane tanks have relief valves that are designed to open when the pressure inside the tank reaches a certain point.
“When a tank gets so hot, as with any kind of metal, it will fail at some point, and when it fails, it fails violently because the gas is released so fast that it explodes and can send the tank flying for half a mile.”
Cooling down the tank was the first objective for firefighters. They also took care of the garage quickly so it didn’t catch on fire, he said.
Strong winds made the fire especially destructive, Mayer said.
“The wind coming up the hill behind the house fed the fire,” he said. “It was a blowtorch kind of thing.”
The fire produced so much heat that a firetruck parked 80 to 100 feet from the house was damaged, Mayer said.
“There was bubbling of the engineer’s seat and it melted lights to the pumper,” he said.
Firefighters had the fire “knocked down” in about 20 minutes, but the debris from the fire was so deep there were lots of hot spots, Mayer said.
“Everything from the second floor was on the first floor, and piles of burning materials had to be put out,” he said.
Firefighters left the scene at 2:44 p.m.
“We knew we’d be coming back,” Mayer said.
About 6:30 p.m., De Soto Rural’s Assistant Fire Chief Tom Fitzgerald returned to the house to check “the deep-seated (materials) and found a visible flame with the wind kicking up and embers burning.”
Firefighters returned to the home to “dig through the whole thing and put it out” and were on the scene until 10:30 p.m., Mayer said.
The American Red Cross was notified to help the family with emergency shelter, clothing and food. Mayer said the family had not made a decision about where they would stay when firefighters left.
The De Soto and Festus fire departments and the Hematite, Hillsboro, Mapaville, Jefferson R-7, Goldman, Cedar Hill and Potosi fire protection districts, along with the Valle Ambulance District, assisted with the call.
That afternoon the De Soto Rural district had two other fire calls. Fortunately, other fire districts had moved up to cover De Soto Rural Fire while that district’s firefighters were on the Kingsland Road fire.
At 2:06 p.m., the St. Clair Fire Protection District responded to a brush fire with a house threatened in the 6600 block of Hwy. H. At 2:35 p.m., the Festus Fire Department responded to a call in the 3700 block of Hwy. V where a flue fire spread to insulation in the attic. Firefighters had to wear full protective gear and SCVA masks in the smoky attic to put out the insulation and were on the scene until after 4 p.m. Mayer said.