I was collecting druse quartz at the Haunted Ridge Druse Farm on Saturday April 17th, when I had a text from a friend asking if I had heard from a friend asking if I went to the multiple house fires near the old Green Lantern area…told him I was rockhunting and had no clue what was happening in town. When I got back, I checked the Independent News Facebook page and found some photos other folks had taken while driving by on I-44…

…these photos were taken by Mark Pinnell while passing by behind the structures…there are several small bungalows up on the hill on the South Service Road just east of Sullivan and the Lowes Store. After returning home, I found out the fires are suspicious in nature and under investigation. Hope they catch whoever would torch multiple homes like that in a historic area of Sullivan no less.

Around 7:30 pm on March 1st, 2021, Sullivan Fire Department was toned out for a Residential First Alarm, House Fire at 75 Miramigoa Drive in Miramigoa Park, which is a private community located between Meramac State Park and Meramac Caverns. Firefighters arrived to find the residence fully involved with live electrical lines and appeared to be vacant….there were several animal pens on the west side of the house, but did not appear to be occupied either…

Fires 2021-0301 House Fire 75 S Miramigoa Drive AVI 13

Captain Ray Enloe and his crew were first on scene with Pumper 854, Ray and Firefighter John Wayne Strothcamp were both manning hoselines at the initial attack and John had the electrical lines arcing right behind and above him for a few minutes while he was knocking down fire inside the southeast corner of the home, seen in the video at the bottom of this story. Sullivan had a good response on the call and firefighters from Bourbon and St Clair arrived quickly after as well.

Ray Enloe on the nozzle above and below…

Even after firefighters knocked down the flames, the heavy smoke and steam really made it difficult to see inside the residence and figure out exactly what was still going on inside the walls of the house…

Fires 2021-0301 House Fire 75 S Miramigoa Drive AVI 24

I left the scene as Crawford Electric was arriving to take care of the electrical hazard.

Shortly after 9 pm on the 17th of January, 2021, Sullivan Fire Department was toned out for a Residential First Alarm, Mobile Home Fire, at 1605 Springbluff Road. Turned out to be on the bad curve of Springbluff Road about a quarter mile from North and South Road. I could see the glow of heavy fire in the sky as I got close and was able to park in a small field close to the driveway for the residence. The entire front porch of the trailer was lit up with flames about 30 feet high and every bit of 40 to 50 feet long…my initial shot with my flash unit was taken at a slow shutter so the movement of flames and firefighters makes it appear I was not in focus…

….but then again, the exertion from running to the scene to get the shot may have caused me to be a bit shaky when I shot it too…however you can see the firefighters and the amount of fire they were dealing with quite well. They were a little light on manpower for a few minutes and had their hands full…Sullivan PD had responded to the scene as well, ahead of Franklin County, who had a report of a suspicious male running around the scene prior to arrival of firefighters, so police were enroute for security of the scene and protection of all personnel at the scene and in the area. I believe the resident may have been the person someone spotted and only because he was in the shadows when observed by the passerby. Captain Damon Sumpter and his crew stretched a couple of preconnect hoselines and attacked the fire, knowing they had help on the way….

Fires 2021-0117 Mobile Home Fire 1605 Springbluff Road AVI 105

The photo above and below were taken using the camera in my phone, no flash, right after shooting the video above with my Nikon D90 Camera…show Firefighter Joe Kincaid on the hoseline attacking the fire and Captain Damon Sumpter walking up to him in the photo below…

Additional units with manpower and water were still enroute as Damon and Joe continued to knock down the majority of the fire in the porch area…

..the fire began spreading to the right of the porch area and Damon attempted to knock it down as well, but ran out of hoseline…

Fires 2021-0117 Mobile Home Fire 1605 Springbluff Road AVI 129

Right after I took this photo, firefighters near the pumper shut down the line and added more hose to the line to extend it out 100 additional feet, and it was about then that St Clair and Beaufort-Leslie Firefighters arrived to assist Sullivan Firefighters….

Fires 2021-0117 Mobile Home Fire 1605 Springbluff Road AVI 138

I left the scene a few minutes later and Damon was utilizing his extra help from one end of the trailer to the other, with much of the flames inside the trailer now knocked down and the only flames seen now were under the trailer….

Sullivan Fire Department received a dispatch early morning of December 31st, 2020 for a car on fire on Miramigoa Road, near the turn off to Cane Bottom…I was able to catch up to the fire department response units as I was still awake and dressed, putting in a late night of computer work. As we approached the scene, it was easy to see that the car was well off the roadway down into a wooded area and not on a trail at all…big red flag…and fully involved…

…as you can see in the photo above, the back hatch was completely missing from the rear of the vehicle…second red flag….and no plates found on the car at all…third red flag…called in by a passerby who told dispatch it may have been due to an accident, but as it was, the car was too far off the road for that to have happened.

Firefighters Jacob Dace and Beau Kick with Captain Damon Sumpter`s crew, wait for water and then attack the blaze…

Fires 2020-1231 Audi Car Fire in Woods Near Miramigoa Park AVI 65

Turned out to be an Audi type car/suv style, if I recall correctly, one plate may have been found and a Franklin County Deputy arrived as I was leaving the scene, to assist in the investigation of it. Definitely a weird location for a car fire.

Around 2 pm on December 10th, 2020, Sullivan Fire Department was dispatched to a Residential First Alarm, House Fire, reported to be across from the old Japan Store on Hwy H…as soon as I approached Wolf Run Farm I could see some black smoke up on the hill to the north. I arrived just before Pumper 854 with Captain Dave Konys` crew aboard, and after parking across H from the two story white farmhouse, I walked over behind the house to find two nice young men, who had been passing by, spotted the fire, alerted the residents, and then stayed to help fight the fire with them…continuing to help them put out fire where they could manage to fight it on their own with buckets of water and a garden hose with little pressure on it.

A smaller house that was located behind the main farmhouse, is what was on fire, and that fire once it became fully involved, created even more damage by catching a nearby henhouse on fire, melting the vinyl siding of the two story farmhouse from roof to ground, igniting a huge woodstove wood pile between the fire building and farmhouse, two large round bales of hay that was leading fire to the barn nearby that was also stocked with more hay, and yard grass…..

As Dave checked for fire extension to the back wall of the farmhouse, Davey Sumpter manned a preconnect hoseline and began knocking down heavy fire remaining in all areas…

More firefighters arrived with more trucks soon after Dave`s crew arrived and Nick White checked for extension to the enclosed back porch of the farmhouse…

while Davey continued to apply water to the large round bales…they usually require a lot of water to fully extinguish, with them so close to the barn, firefighters didn`t want to take any chances on having to return for a barn fire as well….

and then concentrated on the small house that had been fully consumed by flames prior to their arrival…

while other firefighters attacked the flames consuming the pile of stove wood….

About this time, firefighters from Bourbon, St Clair, and Beaufort-Leslie began arriving as well, and Gerald Fire Department with a tanker….

Thank God for the timing of those nice young men who were passing by when this happened, and their responsibility to stay and assist the residents, who I am sure would have fared a much worse fate had they not…

I was relaxing on December 1st when I heard Sullivan Fire dispatched to a first alarm residential structure fire about 10 pm…I grabbed my camera and flash unit and headed that way. I was eastbound on I-44 when Jim Bartle called me to see if I knew about it…told him I was on the way and he said he was too, he was a few miles behind me. I arrived right behind Sullivan Firefighters and parked at the edge of a field about 50 yards from the house, which was totally engulfed in heavy flames….

Sullivan firefighters were scrambling to stretch lines to the front and rear of the house simultaneously and doing a great job with the personnel they had on the scene initially…

Fires 2020-1201 Structure Fire Stewart Residence at Stanton AVI 11

Trevor Woods manned the hoseline at the front of the house and began concentrating his stream of water on the heavy fire at the right side of the house where a two car garage was attached….

There were several Junior Firefighters on the scene as well and they were doing tremendous good work assisting firefighters with the hoselines and tools…

St Clair Firefighters arrived and set about assisting on fire attack immediately…

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Firefighter Sierra Smythe has the nozzle below with newer Junior Firefighter Bennett Sherrell backing her up on the line…

Fires 2020-1201 Structure Fire Stewart Residence at Stanton AVI 37

I left the scene shortly after, firefighters were still working the rear of the structure to knock down fire back there and firefighters at the front had a good knockdown on that side, but firefighters did remain on scene for some time after. From what I observed on scene, everyone did a great job, lots of good teamwork !!

I was off work on November 19th and resting up from my November trip to Arkansas when I heard Potosi Fire Department calling for assistance from a huge brush fire on Hwy 185 south of Sullivan in the Pea Ridge State Forest, a few miles south of Indian Creek Valley. I drove out to take a few photos and video for Sullivan Independent News and wound up staying a little while, talked to the Fire Command Officer on the scene for a bit, he is a Richwoods Firefighter and he gave me some information on some old mines in the area as well. When I first walked up, the smoke was heavy and acrid in the air, the fire had burned right up to Hwy 185 and firefighters had their hands full trying to prevent it from crossing over due to extremely high winds. The fire had apparently started a quarter mile west down a gravel road into the state forest, and stretched along Hwy 185 another mile to the south as well…St Clair Fire Department had their newest brush truck on scene and an open cab pumper from Richwoods was behind it…

…soon after shooting the initial photo above, I spotted firefighter friends Jacob Dace and Josh Hinson, armed with leaf blowers, entering the forest on the right side of the photo below, to put a second fire line in around this fire…it jumped their original line and would jump it several more times while I was there, due to the high winds…

…they put this line in and then had to back out due to the extreme heat and wind…after Jacob talked to Fire Command a bit, they tried putting in yet a third line around the right flank again…

The Fire Command Officer at this location helped with holding the line several times when the wind started howling once again….

About an hour into my stay there, Missouri Conservation Department arrived with a flatbed truck transporting one of their dozers, and the operator went down the north side of the forest to put a safety line in on that side of the highway first…

Fires 2020-1119 Brush 1st Alarm AVI 71

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Fires 2020-1119 Brush 1st Alarm AVI 81

I assisted with traffic control on the north end of the fire scene, mainly helping traffic turn around and go back to Hwy A to get around the scene. I did see Sullivan`s crews before I left the scene and the next week I drove down to Potosi and saw the fire had extended a mile down the road on that west side of the highway in several areas. Potosi was wise to call for assistance that day.