Second Graham home damaged in fire
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
Volunteer firefighters direct a plume of water Tuesday afternoon toward the flaming roof of a burning house on the west end of Jackson Street in Graham. None of the home’s three residents was home at the time the fire was reported.
Multiple departments responded to a house fire Tuesday afternoon in the 400 block of Jackson Street in Graham.
It was the second structure fire in the small southwest Nodaway County Community since Friday, when a minor blaze damaged a home a couple of blocks to the east on the same street.
The alarm for the Tuesday fire was called in shortly after 1 p.m. Firefighters arrived on the scene to find the house filled with smoke, which was soon streaming out from under the eaves.
Firefighters had been on the scene about 45 minutes when flames erupted from the roof of the small, white ranch-style home. A portion of the roof buckled at the east end of the structure as firefighters poured water through windows and doors.
The house, which sustained heavy smoke, fire and water damage, was the residence of Dick and Tammie Sanders and Tammie Sanders’ brother Jim Hurst.
None of the three residents was home when the fire started, though Tammie Sanders and several family members arrived soon after the blaze was reported.
There were no injuries, and the cause of the fire was still under investigation Tuesday afternoon.
One family member said it appeared at first that the fire had started in a bedroom at the east end of the house, the front door of which faces north.
Tammie Sanders said the couple used a wood stove to heat their home, but that there was no initial indication that the stove had ignited the blaze.
Firefighters were able to access water from a hydrant located near Jackson Street at the corner of the home’s large front yard. Additional water was supplied by tanker and pumper trucks.
In addition to the Graham Fire Protection District, fire crews and equipment were dispatched from Skidmore, Maitland, Maryville and Polk Township.
Other agencies on the scene included a Nodaway County Ambulance unit, Kansas City Power & Light and the Nodaway County Sheriff’s Department.
Officials said the Midland Empire Chapter of the American Red Cross had been notified and was working to provide emergency shelter and other necessities for the three people rendered homeless by the fire.
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
A firefighter uses a long-handled pike to force a door at the west entrance to a burning house in Graham on Tuesday afternoon. Multiple departments responded to the blaze, which caused heavy damage to the small, ranch-style structure.
