Linwood house fire
A teenager and his two brothers escaped a fire that destroyed a garage and about one-third of their family home in Linwood.
“Everybody’s good. The kids are doing OK,” said Dawn Fouch, the boys’ mother who was on her way to work Tuesday morning in the Kansas City area when the fire started.
After she received a call from the sheriff’s office, Fouch returned home at 204 Bowen St., and learned that her 17-year-old son awakened after having difficulty breathing.
He rolled over, the air was hot and flames were climbing his bedroom wall. Fouch’s son then went to the other end of the house, gathered his brothers, ages 14 and 9, and the family’s dogs and made it outside safely and uninjured.
Dan Tallman, chief of Sherman Township Fire Department, said the blaze significantly damaged the south end of the one-story house.
The call came in shortly after 7:30 a.m., and firefighters had it under control after about 40 minutes, Tallman said. Crews from Reno and Stranger townships and Eudora and Tonganoxie city departments also responded.
“They did what they could,” Fouch said.
An investigator with the Kansas State Fire Marshal’s office was still on the scene Tuesday afternoon and interviewing the family. The investigator was looking for a possible cause and origin of the fire.
Fouch said Tuesday morning that they were staying with some friends. The Basehor-Linwood school district canceled classes Tuesday because of the winter storm that moved in overnight Monday.
Tallman said firefighters still were trying determine an approximate damage total. In addition to fire damage, the home sustained smoke and water damage.
Members of the area’s American Red Cross chapter took the Fouch family to buy clothing Tuesday, Tallman said.
Leavenworth County records listed Karyn Stiltner as the property owner.