House explosion and fire claim one life
Victim identification awaits autopsy
By Bobbi Mlynar
Friday, October 13, 2006
The investigation is continuing into a fatal explosion about 12:30 p.m. Thursday that destroyed a home at 1405 Road F, southwest of Emporia in Lyon County.
About 5 p.m., searchers found a body in the debris. The house was the home of Geraldine Richard, who is missing. An autopsy will be performed to identify the victim and determine the cause of death.
The Emporia Fire Department and Lyon County Sheriff’s office are working with the Kansas State Fire Marshal’s office to determine the cause of the explosion and subsequent fire.
The sheriff’s office said the fire was reported at 12:32 p.m. by Terry Rinker, who lives in southwest Lyon County. The house was engulfed in flames when firefighters and sheriff’s officers arrived.
Throughout Thursday afternoon, Richard’s neighbors and family members stood anxiously outside the yellow sheriff’s tape that cordoned off an ever-wider area around the scene. A friend of the family gathered up photographs scattered outside the house and handed them to Richard’s relatives.
The district coroner was at the scene later in the afternoon, as well as investigators from the Emporia Fire Department and state fire marshal’s office.
Firefighters from Emporia, Chase County, Lyon County and Olpe worked to extinguish the fire. Also on the scene were at least four Lyon County sheriff’s deputies, the local Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer and an ambulance on standby. Firefighters with water trucks kept a steady pace as they emptied their loads on the fire and returned for refills to a water hydrant on Lockerman Road west of South Prairie Street.
Firefighters and equipment from Americus and Hartford helped extinguish hot spots remaining in the debris after the fire was brought under control.