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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend June 28, 2002 Five-minute fire scorches Medford home Family members escape blaze started when stove malfunctioned while mother prepared dinner By SARAH LEMON Mail Tribune A faulty propane stove ignited a fire that forced a Medford family from their home Thursday night. Guadalupe Tovar was cooking carne asada on the back porch of her Marshall Avenue home when the fire started. She walked away from the stove to make some lemonade, and when she turned back, a fire had started near the stove, said her 13-year-old son, Abel. Guadalupe threw a pitcher of water on the flames, which leapt up and devoured the room’s ceiling, Abel said — interpreting for his mother, who speaks mostly Spanish. Tovar’s two sons ran across the street to call for help. Her husband, 7-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son returned from a shopping trip to Lowe’s Home Improvement store to find three fire engines blocking their street. "I thought it was another house," said 7-year-old Jasmine Tovar. But behind the fire trucks, their home of one month was burning. "Everything that happens in our lives comes from God," Guadalupe Tovar said. "He gives us good things and bad things," she said gazing at her feet, where the clear glass lemonade pitcher reclined in the dirt. The 7:45 p.m. blaze ripped through about half of the Tovar’s home in the 400 block of Marshall Avenue, spread to a backyard pine tree and threatened a neighboring home when embers showered its cedar-shake roof. "There was a lot of orange. (The flames) were 30-footers," said Capt. Dale Mawhirter of Medford Fire Department. It took 10 firefighters with three engines only five minutes to control the blaze. But in those five minutes, a family’s home was blackened beyond recognition. The roof of the back porch where Guadalupe was cooking crumbled to ashes. The family’s stereo melted, and the futon mattress crisped in the heat. Fresh cherries oozed from a liquefied plastic bowl onto the scorched dining room table. Mini blinds drooped from the windows. Damage to the home, which the Tovar’s owned, and its contents was approximately $90,000, Mawhirter. Jasmine said she was certain that three pet chicks perished in the flames. But Oliver, the family’s white and orange cat, waited out the fire and was returned to the children about an hour later cradled in the arms of a Mercy Flights paramedic. The Red Cross had planned to house the Tovars, who also have family in Talent, said Larry Blight, a chaplain for the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department. No one was injured. Reach reporter Sarah Lemon at 776-4487, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker dvd-r Distance Education Computer Security Ztech Media Hosting Sports Equipment Student Loans Online Pharmacy tcg student loan consolidation Online Casino Reviews Myspace Home Equity Loans Windermere Van Vleet Deep Muscle Stimulator Discount Hotel Reservations Southern Oregon Loans Online Casino News Online Bingo Entertainment Guide Salvia Divinorum Online Casino Advertisement s