Fires destroy two Essex area homes

ESSEX, Mo. -- The Essex Fire Department was busy over the weekend when two homes were destroyed by fire. The John Hunter home south of Frisco and a house owned by Mike King in the Peaceful Acres sub-division south of Essex were both totally ungulfed in flames when firefighters arrived, and there was little they could do to save the houses.

Assistant Essex Fire Chief Chad Maddox said the department received the report of the Hunter home fire at 4:30 p.m. Saturday. He said the department was on the scene within 10 minutes, but found the house "fully involved" in flames when they arrived.

Firefighters battled the blaze for approximately four hours.

MIKE MCCOY -- mmccoy@dailystatesman.com A pile of rubble is all that is left of a rental house owned by Mike King after it was destroyed by fire Sunday morning.

The Dexter Fire Department was called to provide assistance, specifically more tankers to provide water to extinguish the flames. Dexter Fire Chief Don Seymore said a tanker and pumper truck and six firemen were dispatched to the scene south of Frisco after the call from the Essex Fire Department.

Maddox said the Hunter family was at home at the time of the fire, but no one was injured. He said John Hunter reported the family noticed smoke and then flames coming from the garage attached to the house. They then called the fire department.

Maddox said the house was completed destroyed, with only the fireplace chimney and a rock wall on the north side of the house left standing. He said the cause of the fire was unknown, but it was accidental.

Essex Fire Chief Raymond Fuwell said the fire department received another report of a fire at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday. A house owned by King on Kathyrn Street in Peaceful Acres was fully engulfed by the time firefighters arrived. Fuel said the house was rental property and no one was home at the time of the fire.

Firefighters battled to control the blaze to prevent it from spreading to nearby houses, but there was no hope of saving the house, Fuwell said.

Fuwell said he was did not know the cause of the fire, and it would be difficult to determine because the house was basically "reduced to ashes."