Fire crews were busy last night and this morning when two people were injured in a fire late Sunday evening and another home was filled with smoke as a result of a power outage early this morning.
Fire Marshal Tom Andrews said a fire broke out at 614 Garfield St. at 11:15 p.m. Sunday. Two people were taken to the hospital with burns.
“When we arrived, we had smoke showing and we had one room fully involved and we were able to contain the fire to that one room,” Andrews said.
There were five people in the building at the time — three children and two adults. Andrews said the father’s name is Dustin Crowl. The family rents the home. The mother and one of the children were taken to the hospital for burns. Their names are not being released. The mother was treated and released. The child was flown to Kansas City. The cause of the fire is undetermined at this time but was contained to the west bedroom of the home.
Crews responded to a separate incident at 6:24 a.m. today at 2407 Road J5. Capt. Steve Kuhlmann, of the Emporia Fire Department, said there was no fire, but the home filled with smoke as a result of a power outage, which shut off the electrical exhaust fan of a corn burning stove. This morning’s power outage was caused by a switch problem in the Americus Substation, a spokesman for Lyon-Coffey Electric said this morning. The substation was shut down for about 45 minutes, causing about 480 people to be out of power. Kuhlmann said one of the detriments of a corn burning stove is the fact that the stove has an electrical powered exhaust fan.
“Instead of natural heat and gravity it has a power vent,” Kuhlmann said. “When it (power) goes off the fire box itself builds up an incredible amount of smoke. ... Once the pressure builds up the smoke comes out through all the little leaks in the stove. Unless you can get that power exhaust moving in there’s just nothing that I know of that you can do.”
Kuhlmann said he heats his home with this type of stove as well and has the same problem. In the event of a power failure, the fan on his stove will not reset. He said one solution is to have a generator to hook the stove up to in the event of a power failure.
“A regular wood stove will run without electricity,” he said. “These corn stoves (have) a big detriment without power.”
Dawn Young and her small child were at home at the time of the incident this morning and got out safely, Kuhlmann added.
slipandslide (anonymous) says...
i hope everyone will be okay.
October 27, 2008 at 4 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
smith_ron (anonymous) says...
Winfield's playgournd, similar to Emporia's, burned today. http://www.winfieldcourier.com/
It is a real tragedy.
October 27, 2008 at 6:23 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
dgm (anonymous) says...
I grew up in Winfield, and have taken my kids to that playground several times... I'm still in shock. I hope someone can look into if our playground has the same vulnerability and if we can mitigate it.
October 27, 2008 at 8:52 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
admireed (anonymous) says...
This will give someone an idea and it will happen here I fear.
October 27, 2008 at 9:18 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
smith_ron (anonymous) says...
The news said tonight the fire was as quick as a tornado. Thank God no one was in the playground. I hope something can be done to Emporia's playground, if needed. to prevent anything like that from happening here.
October 27, 2008 at 10:18 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )