Fires destroys Burlington home; heroes save girl

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, April 20, 2004

BURLINGTON - A 12-year-old girl was saved by her brother and a neighborhood boy as a fire gutted her family's house

Monday evening.

The two boys pulled

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Shawne Dishman out a window because she could not get out the front or back door to the mobile home at 44 Township Road 1023. Dishman's brother Dallas

Thacker had been playing outside with his friend, Nick White.

"The door was stuck, I don't know why. I just know I couldn't get it open,'' Dishman said.

Several fire departments including Fayette-Burlington, South Point and Chesapeake's volunteer forces quickly responded to the scene, but the fire had engulfed the home in approximately six minutes, Burlington-Fayette Fire Chief Joe Adams said.

Phillippa McComas was on her way home from work when the fire started. Her three other children -Jonathon Thacker, 18, Nathaniel Thacker, 17, and Dallas were not inside the home.

Firefighters had the fire extinguished in approximately 10 minutes. Adams said a mobile home can be destroyed by fire within 7 to 10 minutes.

Although an incident report was unavailable Monday evening, Adams said the fire apparently started in the kitchen and was probably accidental.

Chesapeake Fire Chief Steve Reger said all of the departments worked together as a team to put the fire out.

"It's like a brotherhood,'' he said.

Firemen retrieved a fireproof safe in which McComas had kept some family pictures. McComas' mother drove from Milton, W.Va., in 20 minutes when she heard the news. The family van was destroyed.

Neighbor Roy Evans said he heard an explosion around 6:25 p.m.

"I was outside cleaning the pool. I looked down the road and saw the flames and heard somebody yelling, 'We've got to get her out,'''

Evans said.

The family does not have insurance.

Phyllis Jenkins, the children's maternal grandmother, was thankful her daughter and grandchildren are alive.

Anyone interested in helping the family may call Jenkins at 304-743-0209.