“We were standing outside the basement bathroom talking about it and then: Boom,” said Brashear, 57.
Brashear attempted to put the blaze out with a fire extinguisher, but he said the fire became too intense so he quickly got his wife, Diana, 16-month-old granddaughter and three dogs out of the home.
Flames were shooting up the wall and had spread across the ceiling when fire crews arrived, Madison Twp. Fire Lt. Dave Runnells said,
It took Madison Twp. and the Wayne Twp. Fire Department about 1½ hours to quell the flames, he said, due at least in part to sweltering temperatures that reached 90 degrees.
Runnells said he was forced to constantly rotate firefighters in and out of the home to prevent them from suffering heat exhaustion.
Neither the Brashear family nor firefighters were injured in the blaze.
Diana Brashear, 57, said she’s thankful her husband and his son were home when the fire began.
“Fortunately for me, they were here. I wouldn’t have known (about the fire) until it was really bad,” said Diana Brashear, who was upstairs with her granddaughter when the blaze began.
“It’s so bizarre because they were right in front of it when it happened. God had to have had his hand in this.”
Fire officials said Thursday they did not yet have a damage estimate.
About the Author