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House fire ruins couple�s holiday Mail Tribune / Drew Fleming Division Chief Darin Welburn, left, of Jackson County Fire District 5, homeowner Keith Marshall, and Mike Willey, a representative from an Ashland home restoration company, look over the damage to the Marshall home after a Friday morning fire. Marshall and his wife, Karen, were awakened by the fire about 1 a.m. and managed to escape with their pets. Damage was estimated at $80,000-$100,000. By Sara Murphy TALENT � Keith and Karen Marshall exchanged Christmas gifts Thursday evening, then settled into bed just before midnight with plans to head out Friday for a ski weekend with family. About an hour later, the Marshalls� dreams of a white Christmas on Mount Bachelor flew out the chimney as they were wakened by noise from a fire eating away at the wood shake roof on their Pioneer Road home. Keith, an Ashland water quality technician, and Karen, a self-employed landscape designer, escaped safely with their pets. Crews from Jackson County Fire District 5 were on the scene of the three-alarm fire at 1:24 a.m., about seven minutes after receiving Keith Marshall�s 911 call, according to Division Chief Darin Welburn. With help from Medford, Ashland and Phoenix crews, firefighters had the blaze under control in about an hour and were able to salvage much of the home�s contents, Welburn said. "The most important thing, especially after the fire yesterday, was to have no injuries," he said, referring to a house fire that killed an elderly Medford woman early Thursday. "The residents got out safely; no firefighters were injured," Welburn said of the Marshalls� home. Welburn estimated damages at $80,000 to $100,000; the Marshalls have fire insurance, he said. Investigators believe the fire started in or around the flue of the fireplace and suspect either flames or embers shooting from the chimney set the shingles ablaze, Welburn said. Though most of the roof and ceilings collapsed, the walls are largely intact and the house should be able to be rebuilt. Still, it will need to be gutted, from the cabinets to the new floors the couple had recently installed. "We didn�t need to have this happen right now," Keith Marshall said Friday morning, his hands blackened from soot. "Usually, I�m the one sitting on the curb in the hard hat and vest when something like this happens," Marshall said, shaking his head. "I�m not the one this happens to." But instead of leaving town to meet up with family at Eagle Crest Resort near Bend, Marshall was meeting with insurance agents in a thick layer of charred muck dappled with bits of green tinsel garland and a silver ornament. He said he woke just after 1 a.m. Friday to a crackling sound in the house and thought maybe the cats were playing with the Christmas tree. Instead, he saw a red glow coming through the windows. "The roof was engulfed in flames," Marshall recalled. The smoke alarms hadn�t sounded; the fire hadn�t yet moved inside the house. Marshall and his wife gathered their pets and moved outside. "Fifteen to 20 minutes after we got out of the house, the ceiling dropped in on our bed," he said. Hours later, the Christmas tree was nothing more than a charred stick and Marshall couldn�t be sure what all he�d lost. Salvaged items had been moved to a detached garage, a project for another day. "Last night was our Christmas Eve," Marshall said. "All of our presents that we had for the grandkids survived, but the ones we gave each other didn�t. "Oh," he continued, pulling up his sleeve, "I got my watch." Reach Ashland bureau reporter Sara Murphy at 482-4655, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.