That all four of her children spent Saturday night at friends’ homes was a godsend for June Pergeson.
The home where Jeff Sellman, Pergeson and her children live, about eight miles northwest of LaHarpe, was destroyed in a fire Saturday night. Had the four youngsters been at home, Sellman said it might have been difficult to get them out of harm’s way.
Here’s what happened:
About 9:30, Sellman was taking a bath and, with Pergeson also in that part of their home, he smelled smoke.
“I grabbed a towel and ran into the front room,” Sellman said, and was greeted by smoke, wafting from a fireplace.
“I figured it was from a down draft,” he said. “That happened a year or so ago.”
Sellman returned to the bathroom, only to have a fire alarm start emitting its piercing sound a minute or two later.
This time when he arrived in the living room, he was met by flames gushing up around a fireplace.
Advantage of having the children away from home was that their rooms were on the end of the fireplace.
“We might have had trouble getting them out with the flames already filling the living room,” Sellman said.
Rural volunteer firefighters from LaHarpe sped, as best they could on icy roads, to the fire, but by the time they arrived the house was engulfed.
“We about slipped off the road a couple of times on the way,” said LaHarpe volunteer chief Larry Trester. “And, there wasn’t much we could do once we arrived,” other than pour water on burning embers and hot spots.
“We had quite a time fighting the fire with as cold as it was,” Trester added. “Everything keep freezing up.”
Saturday night’s temperature fell to single digits.
LaHarpe volunteers were aided by water-filled tankers from Colony and the Allen County department out of Iola.
“We hauled two loads of water,” said Lt. Ron Jenkins, an Iola firefighter.
