558 N. Main St., Prineville, OR 97754 | (541) 447-6205
The fire at 185 NW Harwood Street #16, Queen’s Garden, scorched this porch, but was prevented from encompassing the entire home.
A Prineville man went above and beyond the call of duty to rescue a residence from being a statistic in a fire, and helped an elderly woman out of harm’s way in the process.
Prineville resident, Sean Casey, was visiting a family member at Queen’s Garden Mobile Park at 185 NW Harwood Street on Friday, August 20, when a neighbor’s house caught on fire.
“My mother lives two spaces down (from the woman, whose house caught fire), and she is senior like this lady is, and is 81 years old,” said Casey. “I was at the back of her residence doing some landscaping chores for her. She and my wife were in the kitchen pouring some coffee and saw the smoke out the window and hollered at me. I came around front, and it was pretty easy to tell they had a problem - big black bellows of smoke coming out of the carport. I hollered back at them and told them to call 911.”
Casey said he immediately went to the residence and the lady was lying on the steps of her deck. Some distance away, her phone was lying on the concrete, out of reach. Casey helped the woman to safety, and out of danger.
While his wife stayed with the shaken woman, Casey went around the residence to get a hose and went to work on the fire.
“It was cooking and burning hot,” said Casey. He said the railing on the deck was burning, as well as a stuffed chair nearby and the indoor /outdoor carpeting. The flames went right up to the residence, and the flames were shooting up close to the roof. Casey worked on the flames close to where he thought the source of the fire was, and “held down the fort” until the fire department arrived.
“The way they are in these parks - they’re so close, if one gets away, you could be looking at the domino effect,” Said Casey. “I watered down everything.”
Kump said that because of Casey’s quick thinking, the fire didn’t get to the attic, and they were able to save the house. The woman was also safe, because Casey and his wife carried the lady safely away from the fire.
“She was Ok, she didn’t need any medical attention,” said Casey Kump, Crook County Fire Marshal for Crook County Fire and Rescue. “We had her checked out two different times on the scene, and she was alright both times. I think she was just kind of shaken up by the whole experience,” said Kump.
This isn’t the first fire that has happened in this mobile park this year. As a rule, Kump said that keeping the fire from the attic is a key element in any fire.
“Several months ago we had another house burn down in the same trailer park and it got up into the roof or upside the attic,” said Kump. “It’s real hard to make access in there to get to the scene of the fire when this occurs, generally speaking — with any fire. Mr. Casey got the garden hose and started spraying the house down immediately, because I think he knew the same thing could happen. He kept it from getting into the attic.”
“We got lucky, I guess that is the bottom line,” said Casey. “I went back and checked on her later. She was still pretty shaken. I told her, we have to look on the bright side. You got me a good work out this morning, and you get a new deck.”
