Published: March 26, 2008 06:34 pm            

Couple tries to move forward after house fire

Home destroyed after SUV ignites

A metal ice cream parlor chair blackened by flames, seat cover gone, sits in the backyard among the few items salvaged from what’s left of Dennis and Debbie Lehman’s Keene home. The chair belonged to Dennis’ great-grandmother. The view from the back of the house looking up where the ceiling and roof used to be reveals a tall pine tree in front of the home badly burned by the flames. Several similar trees dot the property.

“Thank God we had rain recently, and their needles were green,” Debbie said. “If they’d have been dry they probably all would have went up.”

With that, she returns to rummaging through charred scraps of family quilts handed down through generations, trying, without much luck, to find salvageable sections.

Despite loss of property and their home of 29 years, the Lehmans said they remain hopeful and thankful.

“I leave it in God’s hands now,” Debbie said. “It could have been worse. Before, Good Friday was a religious holiday. Now it will always be that and our best day because we got out alive.”

Early Friday morning, about 4 a.m., the Lehman’s 2007 GMC Yukon caught fire while the couple slept. The truck sat parked on the circular driveway about 15 feet from the home’s front door.

“It had been running fine with no problems, and I ran around doing errands Thursday,” Debbie said. “I got home about 11 p.m. and parked there because it was loaded with Easter stuff I had to unload the next day.”

Neighbors called the Lehmans to alert them after they heard the truck explode.

“I ran to the front room and could see the truck on fire,” Debbie said. “I don’t think the house was on fire yet at that point, but I ran to my husband and said, ‘We have to get out.’ It was just us, no pets, and we got out OK.”

The Lehmans grabbed some clothes but not much else. The fire quickly spread to the house. At one point, before she learned the fire had spread into the eaves and attic of the structure, Debbie said she thought firefighters might be able to save her home. Unfortunately, fire rendered the home and SUV total losses. The Lehmans could retrieve “very little” from their destroyed home, said Diana Prince, Debbie’s sister.

The couple are staying with their daughter and son-in-law, Victoria and Harvey Braden, in Rendon for now.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation in February into reports of unattended GMC Yukons and Chevrolet Tahoes catching on fire and burning homes, said Pat Oladeinde, NHTSA spokeswoman. Oladeinde said Monday she did not know whether the Lehmans’ case had been brought into the investigation. Harvey Braden said he had been in touch with the agency, however.

Along with Keene, firefighters from Cleburne, Joshua, Liberty Chapel, Godley, Alvarado and Briar Oaks responded to the fire.

“I’m so grateful to all the firefighters,” Debbie said. “All of them were wonderful and came over to offer condolences and to help.”

With only two firefighters on duty, Keene firefighters had to wait for mutual aid to arrive before they could enter the home to fight the fire. At one point, they ran out of water. The Lehmans’ home, on Farm-to-Market Road 2280, sits in an area annexed by Keene about two years ago where no fire hydrants exist because it is served by a private water company, Harvey Braden said. Keene City Secretary Barbara Fuller said Mayor Roy Robinson discussed working with the company to rectify the situation. The city has no jurisdiction over the area’s water supply, Robinson said.

“I think the city of Keene has an extremely lackadaisical attitude toward doing anything,” said Harvey Braden, who unsuccessfully ran for a city council seat two years ago before he moved out of the area.

The city should at least run a main line that hydrants could be hooked into, he said.

Debbie praised the outpouring of community support but said she does not yet know if she and her husband will rebuild on the property.

        

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