Denison Herald
March 4, 1984


Four homes destroyed in Friday night blaze

by Irene Flaherty
Herald staff writer

A roaring inferno consumed two old two story homes in the 900 block of West Gandy, burned the top floor off a third house and gutted a one story vacant dwelling late Friday night.
A half dozen other homes in the neighborhood suffered roof damage and scorching from the intense heat. Plastic shutters adorning windows on homes across the street melted. One car, a new Dodge Colt, burned. Several others, including some motorcycles and a boat, suffered fire damage.
All available Denison Fire Department equipment, plus two trucks from Sherman and one from Grayson County answered the alarm that sounded at 11:23 p.m. Friday.
The first house to burn was the 18-room two story at 921 W. Gandy occupied by the Clark Crabtree family. Something in one of the center rooms just exploded according to 11-year-old Jeffrey Johnson who was watching a late night television movie.
In less than a minute the flames were everywhere.
Denison fire Chief George Cravens said he was asleep when the fire department dispatcher called. "I pulled on my clothes and ran out the door. I could see the flames as I drove down Loy Lake Road."
Flames from the Crabtree house ignited the house at 919 W. Gandy, owned by Mary Haegan.
Next was Mrs. John Gleckler's home at 915 W. Gandy. Then Danny Bratton's vacant house at 927 W. Gandy burst into flames.
When the first alarm sounded, Craven said three trucks were en route, but while they were still two blocks away, firefighters saw the flames reaching high into the sky and backup equipment was requested.
The fire department is six blocks from the scene.
"We moved as fast as possible, but the fire moved faster," Cravens said. "We had little hope of saving the entire block from the minute we arrived," he said.
Tanker trucks also responded and started putting water on the blaze as other firemen rushed to connect fire hoses to water hydrants.
High winds created by the intense heat shot flames skyward endangering other nearby homes and some not so near.
The roof on a house at 1014 W. Sears caught fire. It was quickly extinguished with little damage.
Another house at 900 W. Woodard suffered roof damage, and still others in the neighborhood were being watered down.
The ladder truck, which is seldom used, was pressed into duty.
All firemen, including the 17 off-duty, were called in.
"We put everything we had into fighting the fire." Cravens said. "And I feel we were lucky. There was nothing we
could do for the first houses. They were gone and we knew it, but we put water - tons of water into the flames to try to minimize the heat and its spreading to other houses," the fire chief said.
"We've always feared a fire in some of those big houses because they are so close together. You can't get between them. It's just too hot and there's not enough space," he added.
The four middle ones burned - two to the ground and the other two too heavily damaged to be repaired, the chief said.
Firefighters sprayed each other with water to keep cooled down. However, Fire Marshall Dwight Sharp said he got sick. "I think it was the heat. It just got to me."
Sharp was taken from the scene, but came right back.
He talked with the owner of the home where the fire started. "They had been remodeling it since they moved in last August," Sharp said. "They had some tools in the middle room and said they had all the paint and stripping stuff on the front porch along with a bath tub and two vanities."
Sharp said the cause of the blaze may never be determined.
Members of the firemen's auxiliary and neighbors brought ice water first to help the men cool down, then they started brewing coffee. It was 5 a.m. before they left the scene.
Although all the electricity was cut off quickly, the gas was a more difficult situation.
After meters melted, blue flames shot out of the open-ended gas pipes. But there was no danger, firemen assured. "Actually their burning is better because the fire burns the escaping gas and lessens the danger of explosion," one said.
Cravens said the firefighters had hoped to stop the flames from getting into the Gleckler home, but when a trickle of fire was spotted under the eave, he knew it was going to be heavily damaged.
"We already had men inside with a line putting water on it, and had the big ladder truck trying to keep the roof from catching. The we hand men in front and back shooting water between he two houses, but it just wasn't enough." he said.


Neighbors move quickly to escape moving blaze
by Irene Flaherty
Herald staff writer

Eleven-year-old Jeffery Johnson was watching a scary movie on television late Friday when a fire exploded all around him.
"Fire, Fire", he screamed and ran to his parents bedroom.
"I saw flames everywhere."said Mrs. Clark Crabtree. We called the fire department from the bedroom, then fled without getting even our shoes or anything.
Jeff grabbed a cat and ran out the front door and we ran out the back. Flames were everywhere that quick. she said.
"Did you lose everything", she was asked.
"Nope, we've got everything," she said hugging her son and husband. "People are all that count. All that's gone, she said pointing to the pile of coals across the street. But we've got everything here."
At daylight yesterday, Mrs. Crabree borrowed a pair of shoes, slacks and put on her husband's shirt. That means he isn't wearing one and used a borrowed rake to go through the rubble trying to find something.
"Look," she said to neighbors and friends who were gathering around. "This is my husband's wedding ring. These are my mother's car keys." she said as she displayed a handful of melted items.
Her parents car was parked at the curb. Tires on the little Colt melted, then the vehicle caught fire.
Two of the Crabtree vehicles, a pickup and another car which were in the alley parking area were heavily scorched.
"We fled the house so fast, we didn't have time to get the keys- or even think of them until the cars started burning," she said.
Once outside, Mrs. Crabtree ran to one house to wake the people. Her husband went to another, her son, still another.
Next door at 919 W. Gandy was Mary Hanegan.
She had lived there 47 years. A couple of hours earlier she had checked out the house, locked it up and had gone to bed for the night. Her son, David, who had his own apartment in the rambling two-story frame house, was still awake. Both were on the ground floor. Jerry Raper was renting an upstairs apartment.
The men heard the alarm first. They woke Mrs. Hanegan, a widow, and helped her get out. But they could not save anything.
The roaring inferno next door didn't take but minutes to spread its flames, igniting the house which was less than six feet away.
"It's just one of those things," Mrs. Hanegan, still in her nightclothes, said after taking refuge across the street at Pearl Garwin's home. "It's gone now."
Mrs. John Gleckler was routed from her home too. Her husband, Dr. Gleckler, died last summer. She was living alone
in the big house at 915 W. Gandy.
Mrs. Gleckler was born in that house. Her father, the late ___ Lewin, built the house in 1903.
She, too, was still in her nightclothes. Friends and neighbors came to her aid. While flames from the two burning homes continued to grow, it became obvious that they would spread to her home, just another six feet from the inferno.
"People came from everywhere and started carrying out my furniture," Mrs. Gleckler said. "They are so wonderful. Gorgeous people. Just angels," she said.
"You know its funny," she said. "My whole life is burning and you know what I was thinking? I forgot to get my hair pins. It's strange what people think at at time like this. They saved so much  of my furniture - but my baby grand piano, it's still in there - and I'm thinking about hair pins."
She stood outside and watched as the first flames reached her home. A trickle of light from the eave. A little flame shooting up from the back corner of the roof. Then a bigger one.
Firemen had the ladder truck out and a man 80 feet in the air was directing water down on the roof. But the flames - so hot they melted plastic awnings across the street - would not be beaten back by the tons of water being poured over the home.
At daylight yesterday, more volunteers were back on the scene to salvage other items - including Mrs. Gleckler's well-soaked piano.
The roof had been burned off; however, many items - although damaged by smoke, heat and water - were saved.
Mrs. Ed Harris, Mrs. Gleckler's daughter, said, "Mother wanted to live alone, but now I guess she will be living with us. She loved her home so."
Steve Oden owns the house just east of the Gleckler home - 909 W. Gandy. He came there and carrying out what he could - just in case. But Oden didn't live there. He was remodeling the house and "fixing it up."
His house escaped major fire damage although it was blistered.
Cathy Williams, Oden's sister, got off work at Texoma Medical Center at 11 p.m. She was driving home when she
heard the sirens and said she thought that "It must be ambulances going to the hospital. But then I saw a red glow and when I got to Morton and Tone. I knew it was a fire. My grandmother, Lillian Ornsby, lives right behind that big house that just fell in," she said. "She's in her 80s and I knew she wouldn't wake. I jumped out of my car and used that little old man's phone at the end of the block," she said pointing down the street. "I got her awake, then went over and we used the water hose to wet down her house. It was so hot. You just can't believe how hot it was."
The corner house, 931 W. Gandy, which is owned by Gene and Judy Kincaid, sustained minor damage. An unoccupied one-story house owned by Danny Bratton was gutted. Bratton, who lives out of state had the house up for sale.
With fire raging, neighbors broke out water hoses and started putting water on their homes.
Chunks of fire "as big as baseballs" were flying skyward. "It looked like a giant fireworks display," one spectator said.
Today, Gandy still has several blocks of big two and three-story homes jammed close together.