Date: Fri 16-May-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

fire-Botsford-Schefkind

Full Text:

with cut: Botsford Fire Forces Elderly Couple From Home

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

A fast-moving Botsford house fire Monday afternoon did an estimated $70,000 of

damage to a South Main Street home and forced its inhabitants, an elderly

couple, to find another place to live.

There were no reported injuries.

Aaron Schefkind and his wife, Christina, weren't home when the mid-afternoon

blaze began, having left the building at 302 South Main Street for about 30

minutes to run errands in the area.

When they returned to their house, which is across South Main Street from the

Botsford Firehouse, Mrs Schefkind noticed smoke coming from the building and

discovered the kitchen was on fire, said Botsford Fire Chief Steve Belair.

Mrs Schefkind wasn't able to use a telephone to call for help because it was

inoperable, the fire chief said.

She ran to end of her driveway and called out to a Botsford firefighter who

was washing his car at the firehouse, the chief said.

The unidentified firefighter jumped into Truck 551, which is Botsford's

first-line pumper, and drove it across the street into the Schefkind's yard

where he started fighting the fire, the chief said.

The firefighter had called the fire dispatch center in Edmond Town Hall to

alert firefighters to the blaze which rapidly pushed smoke out of an attic

window.

"The residents were really lucky," Chief Belair said, noting that they weren't

in the building when the fire started, plus their close proximity to the

firehouse and a firefighter washing his car.

Mr Schefkind is confined to a wheelchair.

"Another two or three minutes and they would have lost most of (the house),"

Chief Belair said.

Firefighters got the blaze under control in about 15 minutes. Firemen from

Botsford, Newtown Hook and Ladder, Sandy Hook, and Dodgingtown responded.

Besides the burn damage to the kitchen, there's smoke and heat damage

throughout the house, the chief said. "There's no severe structural damage to

the house," he said, adding it can be restored.

Chief Belair called in the American Red Cross to help make housing

arrangements for the couple. They are staying out of the area, he said.

Bill Halstead, a deputy fire marshal, said the fire started in the kitchen

near the control panel of an electric stove. Mrs Schefkind wasn't aware if the

stove had been left on when the couple were on errands, Mr Halstead said. The

accidental fire isn't suspicious, he added.

After destroying the stove, the fire went up the kitchen walls and across the

ceiling, he said.

Firefighters used the water carried on trucks to extinguish the blaze.