By Sia Nyorkor
KWCH – November 29, 2013
A Marion county family’s house catches fire and as crews work to put the fire out, they start running low on water.
Firefighters used more than 30,000 gallons to fight the flames but then had to stop to conserve the city’s water supply, even though the fire was still burning.
It’s not what James LeValley expected to hear as he watched flames rip through his home.
His home caught fire early Thursday morning in Burns, Kansas. LeValley says seven people were asleep when someone started screaming.
“She come hollering through the house. My bedroom is right here, just right off the front door and she came running into my bedroom and said the house is on fire,” said LeValley.
He got every one out safely and went back in to grab coats and blankets. The former fire fighter says his skills kicked in and he went on the defensive.
“I went back in with the garden hose to get a better attack on it. It broke through the roof or broke through some place else and it just engulfed from there and I just got out because it was more than i could handle with my garden hose,” he said.
When crews arrived the house was engulfed and flames were coming from the ceiling. As they were putting them out, they started running low on water.
“The city people came down and said we need to try and conserve and at that time we could so we did, they said we were low, we weren’t out,” said Chief Barry Black, Burns Fire Department.
Crews came back out around lunch time with the go-ahead to put the hotspots out. As investigators work to find out what caused the fire, LeValley knows he and his family are at a total loss. but he’s thankful this Thanksgiving day: everyone made it out alive.
“By the time we would have known it here in the other side of the house, there might have been a good chance that we wouldn’t have made it out,” said LeValley.
He didn’t have insurance and the house may be a total loss. His family is working with the Red Cross.
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