Community fire safety rises from tragedy’s ashes

By Chief Gary Bowker (Ret)

As the hot Kansas summer draws to a close and the cool of another fall approaches, I am reminded that Fire Prevention Week is just around the corner in October.

Fire Prevention Week takes me back to a terrible early-morning house fire eight years ago that claimed the life a beautiful 13-year-old girl, affectionately called Lexy. She was a very bright and out-going young lady who was loved by those who knew her. She was a member of the local swim team and was self-taught at the piano.

The fire
I was home sleeping shortly before 4:30 a.m. Nov. 9, 2004, the Winfield 911 emergency dispatch tones blared out, “Attention Winfield Fire, we have the report of a house on fire with a child trapped inside.”

Upon arrival I noted heavy flames rolling out the A- and D-side windows reaching the second floor. I was met with the grieving cries of a mother and her two daughters being attended to across the street by Winfield EMS. My mouth was so dry I didn’t think I could swallow.

I met two firefighters from Engine 71 who were exiting from a rear bedroom window, where heavy dark smoke was pushing from the opening. The captain said that family members had informed him that the little girl was believed to be trapped in the rear of the home.

Firefighters immediately broke out the only rear window where fire was not showing and entered to conduct a primary search of the area. A quick sweep revealed this to be a bedroom with nobody found in that area. The hot and rapidly deteriorating fire conditions in the home forced firefighters to evacuate.

I could see heavy fire through a large picture window located over the stairwell landing on the B side. A vortex of flames was blasting up the stairwell into the second floor hallway, where I could see the bedroom doors were standing wide open.

Fire had already taken possession of the second floor and was rapidly extending into the attic space. Firefighting operations were then focused on attacking the flames through the front door, and then attempting to reach the open stairway to get to the second floor.

The single, 1 3/4-inch attack line was not knocking the fire down as quick as I had expected. A second line was brought into service and allowed the initial attack crew to advance up the stairwell without being cut-off by the fire behind them.

I intercepted three relatives of the victims who were attempting to enter the home, crying that Lexy was still in there. What do you say to them?

The third person who attempted to enter was an older gentleman; I could see that his eyes were fixated on the front door. I met him at the sidewalk and grabbed him by the shoulder.

“Sir, you’re going to have to wait across the street.”

He looked at me and said, “You don’t understand, that’s my granddaughter in there” and he attempted to move past me. I assured him that we were going to find her as I led him back across the street. I will never forget the look of pain and horror in that grandfather’s face.

Firefighters gained access to the second floor and had a good knock down going. Within minutes they located Lexy in her second-floor bedroom closet.

Firefighters covered this little girl in a white sheet and carried her lifeless body down the stairs. She was taken out the back door to an awaiting ambulance in the ally; this was done to spare the family members the pain of seeing her covered in a white sheet.

It should be noted, that while this was being done, the fire still raged in the attic space above.

The Investigation
During my initial examination, I was struck by how empty the living room looked. Clearly, it had experienced flashover prior to our arrival and had the greatest amount of fire damage.

I soon discovered, however, that most of the living room furnishings had been consumed by the fire. I couldn’t immediately recall any previous fire scenes I had investigated where the room contents were so completely consumed with the structure still standing.

The investigation determined that the fire load in this room (mostly synthetic fuels) was a major contributing factor in the fire’s growth and development. Most of the furnishing were in the east half of the living room. Three of the four living-room walls had large windows that were beginning to vent flames at the time of the initial 911 call.

Within approximately 3 minutes, Engine 71 and Quint 71 arrived on-scene to find the structure well involved.

State and local fire investigators determined that a lit candle left burning overnight in the front southeast corner of the living room on top of a stereo speaker started the fire. The candle was on a paper plate filled with dried potpourri, approximately 10 inches away from curtains.

The living room’s synthetic fuel loading, the corner configuration of the candle, the abundance of fresh air available from the windows, and the open stairwell acting as a chimney, created the perfect (fire) storm conditions. This is why two 1 3/4-inch attack lines were needed to contain the fire in the living room.

The fire was discovered by a teenage daughter who saw flames in the living room from her rear first-floor bedroom. She tried unsuccessfully to extinguish it with a pitcher of water before escaping through the rear kitchen door.

Her screams for help woke her mother in the second-floor bedroom over the living room. The mother reported smelling a hot odor as she open the bedroom door, only to find flames leaping up the stairwell, just outside of her bedroom.

She said the heat was so intense that she thought she was going to die in that hallway. She could not breath and she heard and felt her hair singeing and burning as she ran through the upstairs hallway to her second teenage daughter’s bedroom.

After awakening the second daughter, both escaped through the rear bedroom window by climbing onto the roof. Only after climbing down and meeting with the first daughter who had escaped from the first floor, did they realized that Lexy was not with them.

Panic followed and their desperate screams alerted neighbors who then called 911, after the fire was well under way.

The only smoke alarm in the entire home was located in a second floor bedroom, and the battery had been removed.

Community impact
This fire had a major impact on our small community of 12,000 people. First, the community’s fire-safety awareness level was elevated because the local media covered the story for several days.

This is the time to put forth a fire-prevention message, yet remain sensitive to the family and friends who are grieving. A referral organization that specialized in crisis counseling for children and fire victims was found, and those in need were directed to them.

Our department saw an increased number of requests to install home smoke alarms and to conduct home fire-safety visits. Local merchants donated additional smoke alarms for community distribution.

Lexy’s seventh-grade class designed and funded a project to have refrigerator magnets and calendar stickers mass produced for our department to handout to remind residents to change the batteries in their smoke alarms.

Several months after the fire, Lexy’s mother and grandmother asked how they might help get the message of fire safety out to the public. They wanted to prevent someone else from having to experience the loss and grief they were going through.

Two programs emerged. The two women began speaking to local civic groups about the fire. They also worked with local college media and journalism students to develop a 25-minute public education video.

The video focused on the terrible events of that night as described by Lexy’s mother and home fire safety and survival tips from the fire marshal. This video was requested by several neighboring fire departments and was shown during public-education events.

Lexy’s death was tragic but not in vain. The impact she had on our community and the life-saving lessons that this fire teaches us were purchased at a very dear price.

Many of you will be involved with this year’s Fire Prevention Week activities in your community. Some of the people you’ll be in contact with may only be casually listening to your message. Your challenge is to make them want to listen.