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Derry and Melanie Pool of Westfield were at the First Baptist Church in Linton for Sunday School and the 11 a.m. worship service when they received word at 10:45 a.m. that their farm home was on fire.

The young couple rushed home with their two children, Rebekah, 2, and Brady, 7 weeks. When they arrived at the farm, the fire had engulfed about half of the house, and flames broke through the roof not long after that. There was nothing they could do but watch the Pollock and Strasburg firefighters battle the blaze.

The Pools left for church at about 9:30 a.m., and neighbors Ron and Kathee Van Beek noticed smoke a little over an hour later. At first, they thought the Pools might be burning garbage, but it soon became obvious that the house was on fire. They notified the fire departments, and trucks were on the scene within 15 minutes.

Water was hauled to the site by neighbor Rob Ryckman, the North Central Farmers Elevator in Pollock and Dairiconcepts of Pollock. It was the second call that morning for the Pollock Fire Department, which had just returned from controlling a lightning-caused hay bale fire at the Duane Fjeldheim farm. The Emmons County Sheriff’s Department also responded.

Derry said the fire may have been slowed a bit because there had been .30" of rain during the night, and the shingles were still wet when the fire started in the kitchen area.

The Van Beeks tried to get into the house to remove things, but it was too hot to enter even the part of the house the farthest from the flames.

Ron and his son, Levi, were able to rescue Derry’s prized elk mount from the garage.

Firefighters stayed until late afternoon to watch for hot spots in the rubble and to make sure the rest of the house was not charred, although the heat had been intense throughout the house, melting or shattering most things. Furnishings that were not burned or melted were ruined by the thick smoke that permeated the house. It takes 600-degree heat to melt plastic, and the fire was much hotter than that.

“Although we were not allowed to go through the house until the fire inspector and insurance adjuster arrived, I did take out our safe, some files and a couple of guns,” Derry explained, “because I could get to them without disturbing anything else.”

The preliminary report from the Fire Marshal indicates the electrical fire started from a coffee pot in the kitchen.

A miracle

There was a miracle of sorts in the fire. Melanie realized after they were watching the fire for awhile that she had forgotten to put on her wedding ring that morning. She had put it on a vertical post of a paper towel holder on the kitchen counter. Her heart sank when she pondered the fact that the fire had destroyed the kitchen.

When Derry entered the house that evening, he felt no hope that he would find the diamond ring. The rubble was almost knee-deep, and the kitchen was charred beyond recognition. It was like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

“My eye caught something threaded on an electrical wire that had once been in a wall,” Derry said. “It was Melanie’s ring. When the fire consumed the counter, the ring must have fallen onto the wire.”

The wire was so twisted that Derry had to “snake” the ring off.

“I think the Lord must have put it there,” Derry said. “I don’t know how else it could have happened.”

Grateful family

Derry and Melanie said they were very impressed by the professionalism of the two fire departments and their quick response time.

“They worked so hard—it was like it was their own house,” Derry said. “They kept telling me they were sorry, and I told them the main thing was that no one was hurt. They are at great risk when they’re trying to put out a fire like this.”

Derry and Melanie said they can’t believe the outpouring of kindness from friends and neighbors who have helped with the clean-up, given them cash, offered places to stay and even donated diapers for Brady.

On Monday, neighbors were helping clean out the house, carefully listing every item removed so that the value of the contents could be estimated by the insurance company. After being itemized, the charred household items were tossed into a tractor loader and then put into a dump truck to be hauled to a dump site.

Derry’s past experience in the insurance business in Minnesota, along with that of Jeff Boehm of Detroit Lakes, Minn., husband of Derry’s sister, Paula, are helpful in the process.

Homestead house

The Pool home was the homestead of Derry’s great-grandparents, John and Jane Pool. The original home was expanded and updated over the years to make the present structure, which includes a double garage.

Derry represents the fourth generation of the Pool family to operate the farm. After John and Jane came Derry’s grandparents, the late Dick Pool and Annetta Pool, 97, of Pollock, and his parents, Jerome and Linda Pool, who now live about three miles northwest.

The fourth generation Pools moved to the farm in 2006 to fulfill their dream to farm and raise children in the country.

Benefit planned

A benefit will be held for the Pool family on Saturday, August 16, at the Pollock School Gym. Donations may be sent to the Strasburg State Bank or the Pollock Branch of the Campbell County Bank.

More details on the benefit will be included in next week’s edition of the Prairie Pioneer.