By Shannon McFarlin WENK/WTPR News Director
Paris, Tenn.—A rural Paris home was destroyed by a fire Wednesday afternoon which was caused while the homeowner was grilling on the back porch. No one was injured in the blaze and Como/Ore Springs Fire Chief Michael Surratt said, “Thankfully, no one was injured and no one had heat stroke in that heat. That was a major positive with the heat index as high as it was yesterday.”
The Como/Ore Springs Volunteer Fire Department was called to 2040 Briarpatch Lake Road around 3 p.m. and the home was already full engulfed when firefighters arrived.
Surratt said the fire was already coming through the roof when firefighters arrived at the scene. The Como/Ore Springs department had two trucks and nine firemen and mutual aid arrived from the Cottage Grove Volunteer Fire Department with four trucks and 14 firefighters.
Surratt praised the firefighters. “I was really proud that so many of our firemen showed up. We had heat indexes of 110-115 degrees yesterday and it was brutal out there in the heat of the day. With that many men, we could take some breaks and that helped a lot. I especially wanted to thank the Cottage Grove fire department because they had their Cottage Grove Festival going on and they were still able to send that many to help us.”
Henry Co. EMS was on standby at the scene. “That’s routine procedure, especially this time of year, but we were lucky we didn’t need it,” Surratt said.
Homeowner Larry Conger and his wife were home at the time of the fire, but both were uninjured. Conger tried to put out the fire with a fire extinguisher before firefighters arrived, but the fire moved up the back wall of the house from the grill, Surratt said.
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