With help from neighbors, woman escapes home fire as attic burns

 

This story was last updated at 6:40 p.m.

An east Oak Ridge woman who uses a walker was able to escape from her home as her attic burned Tuesday afternoon thanks to help from her neighbors.

The woman, Barbara Osborne, was not injured, although two firefighters who were overheated were treated, Oak Ridge Fire Department Chief Darryl Kerley said. He said the firefighters, Captain Mike Friley and firefighter Casey Payne, were working close to the fire, near a lot of radiant heat.

Firefighters were also looking for a female cat, Honey, that belonged to the Osbornes.

The duplex they live in on Riverview Drive was destroyed, Kerley said.

The cause of the fire, which appeared to have started in the attic in the garage area of the home, wasn’t immediately known. It took between 16 and 18 firefighters about 45 minutes to extinguish the fire, which burned intensely over the garage on a windy Tuesday afternoon.

 

Barbara Osborne said her neighbor Bob Nuspliger knocked on her door at about 3 p.m. Tuesday. But by the time Barbara, who uses a walker, got to the door, Bob was gone. But Barbara looked outside and saw three or four people there.

“Someone yelled, ‘Get out of there! Your house is on fire!'” Barbara said.

Neighbor Evelyn Armstrong, who lives just down the street in The Rivers subdivision, said she smelled smoke from her porch. When she went to investigate, she saw flames and called 911 right away, Armstrong said.

“She didn’t know anything about the fire until the neighbor came and pounded on the door,” said Morris Osborne, Barbara’s husband. He had gone to play golf at about 10 a.m. Tuesday and wasn’t home at the time of the fire.

“I saw the smoke,” Nuspliger said. “By the time we got the telephone call, the flames had started.”

Barbara Osborne said she had seen smoke in her kitchen, where she was working, and checked to make sure sure the oven was off. After her neighbors warned her about the fire, she went back into the home through the front door to try to get her cat, which was “scared to death,” and came out through the garage, hoping to move her car.

But police officers told her not to move the car, which was in the garage, where most of the flames were, and instead get out of the house, Barbara said.

The fire, which dropped down into part of the home below the attic, scorched the siding on an adjacent single-family home.

Kerley said attics have exposed two-by-fours, which burn quickly, and the wind on Tuesday afternoon acted like a bellows, fanning the flames.

The Osbornes said their home is insured, and they have several options for places to stay tonight.

Kerley said three engines worked at the fire and a fourth responded to provide additional manpower. A rescue truck and battalion chief were also at the scene.

More information will be added as it becomes available.