Ash Grove’s Davis perishes in westside house fire

Space heater blamed for fatal inferno; structure ‘fully involved’ when fire crews arrived
 
An Ash Grove man perished when the house he was living in caught fire on the morning of Tuesday, Nov. 2. Loren “Pete” Davis died in the fire, which was reported to have been caused by a space heater at his 608 Woodbine residence in western Ash Grove.
Captain Joseph House, of the Ash Grove Fire Protection District, said the small home was engulfed in flames before he and the other firefighters could arrive on scene.
“We received a call … and we responded with an engine and a tender, and several personnel went directly to the scene,” he said. “I arrived first on the engine, (but) the house was pretty much fully involved at that point. We fought the fire in defensive mode on the outside of the structure until we got more manpower there. We went inside (and) did a primary search, and that’s when we found (Davis) inside, already perished. And then we just preserved the scene as best as we could until the investigators arrived on scene, and we still fought the fire and got the fire out.”
House said he believed Davis had already died in the fire before the firefighters arrived, and also said the building’s construction made the fire particularly difficult to put out.
“We had a lot of hot spots because of the old construction of the house,” he said. “It was the heavy timber stuff that was keeping the hot spots going. It was difficult for us to get the hot spots initially out, so that’s what took us so long on scene; it was to get the hot spots and make sure they were completely out.”
Pamela Deckard who was friends with Davis, said he was a person who was always ready to help someone.
“He would help anybody with the drop of the pin, and he was a very good mechanic,” she said. “He was always working on everybody’s cars.”
Deckard also said that when Davis helped someone, he never asked for anything in return.
“He would do anything for anybody and not charge them a dime,” she said. “We would pay him (for helping us), but he wouldn’t charge us anything.”
House said the fire showed the need for people to be careful when using their space heaters.
“We’re getting into the season of heaters,” he said. “I just want people to watch what they do. If they have any space heaters, make sure they’re plugged into an outlet (directly) and not onto an extension cord or a daisy chain (extension cord plugged into a surge protector). I’ve seen a lot of that going on during my years of service, so I would say watch how you plug in your space heater.”