WARRENSBURG, Mo. -- A cigarette caused two explosions and a fire that destroyed a three-story house, converted into four apartments, at 405 Jefferson St., about 10:12 p.m. Monday. Warrensburg Fire Chief Phil Johnston reported.
Three firefighters received injuries -- two ankle sprains and a medical condition worsened by exposure to the heat and exertion.
"All three firefighters were treated and released," Johnston reported.
Brenda King, 50, said she felt the fire while sleeping in her apartment inside the building. She had fallen asleep with a lit cigarette.
"I fell asleep on the couch watching TV and I woke up because my leg was warm. When I woke up the couch was on fire, the carpet was on fire and I woke my daughter-in-law up and told her to get out -- that there was a fire," King said Tuesday while city employees pasted a "condemned" poster on the side on the front of the building. "I had her go out and start yelling "fire' and "get out.'"
King, with tears falling, said she tried to put out the fire.
"I stayed in there as long as I possibly could to try to get the fire out. I was going to my sink and getting water in the pitchers and pouring it over everything, but the more I poured, the worse it got," King, a smoker who receives oxygen to offset emphysema, said. "They had to pull me out because I couldn't breathe."
King and neighbors stood across the street watching the building burn.
"I was outside maybe five minutes and the oxygen concentrator I had in the living room busted and blew up," she said. "I will never forget it. It was just a loud... Like everything just fell in."
A second explosion followed.
"And then the one tank I had up busted and they found that three streets over," she said.
A man -- King said she does not know who -- learned about several more oxygen tanks being in the house, went in and pulled them out "so they wouldn't blow."
The first explosion brought neighbors out of nearby apartments.
"I felt the blast and heard it," University of Central Missouri student Andrew Mather, who lives in the Foster-Knox dormitory, said.
Within seconds of the blast he heard sirens and ran about two minutes to the scene, he said.
"I smelled smoke everywhere, sirens going crazy, flashing lights, people all over the streets -- I just kept running until I saw the fire," Mather said, adding, "Chaos. Police trying to keep people back, firefighters everywhere, several fire trucks and ambulances in the street... You could feel the heat off the house; smoke pouring out everywhere. It was quite a sight."
Johnston reported bystanders needed protection.
"Oxygen cylinders were exploding and producing metal projectiles that posed a risk of serious injury to bystanders," he reported.
Warrensburg Fire Department and the Missouri Division of Fire Safety investigated the fire.
"The occupant woke up and found flames burning next to her. She reportedly attempted to extinguish the flames by pouring water on them," Johnston reported. "Fire investigators believe the delay in reporting the fire contributed to the extensive flames that were present when the first police and fire units arrived at the scene."
Johnston described the scene: "First-arriving units found flames exiting from several windows and the front door of Apartment 2. ... Flames spread from the room of origin to the upper floor and then to the attic area. Firefighters using four fire engines and one aerial ladder truck kept flames from spreading to adjacent structures."
Acting Battalion Chief Chris Chugg served as the incident commander.
King, on disability as a result of several ailments, said the fire took her possessions and she did not have apartment insurance.
"I lost everything -- my mother's ashes," King said, and sobbed.
King said the Red Cross put her up in a motel, but on Wednesday she is on her own.
"I have nowhere to go, nowhere. ... I don't know what I'm going to do," she said. "I have nothing. ...
"I'm 50 and it's too late to start all over again. Everything I owned was in there."
Copyright 2012 - The Daily Star-Journal, Warrensburg, Mo.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
