Parker Live News from the Parker Strip since 2009.
All photos and video via Michael Collins
A house fire raged out of control in the early morning hours Friday north of Parker, destroying two homes, a travel trailer, an outhouse and a car.
The blaze began sometime around 1 a.m. in the Lakeside 5 subdivision on the Parker Strip. Buckskin Fire Department responded to the incident and extinguished the fire, but the homes were ravaged in the flames.
A very dry spring season has elevated the risk of fire in the desert southwest, with several agencies warning of wildfires and some jurisdictions banning outdoor flames and other high risk activities.
See Buckskin at work on the blaze here:
UPDATE: A further outbreak of the fire caused more damage later, including to some vehicles parked nearby. EDIT: Buckskin Fire may not have been the only fire department assisting in this blaze, with reports that CRIT Fire and Parker Fire were also attending.
Horrific fire, some very good people lost everything, I am heartbroken for them. I do find the before photo odd, it looks like it was taken from my yard area?
We are very thankful for these wonderful peoples safety. We are sending our love, thoughts, and prayers to them!!! We love you!!!
Prayers for these families…;( and thank you Lord for keeping our fire crew safe
Prayers from the Kammerdiener family goes out to all the families that were overcome by the fire. And a special thanks to the Firefighters who worked hard to control the fire before it spread to more houses. I pray that God continues to protect those that lost their livelihood, and I just ask God to help these families with any needs that they may have. Amen.
The before picture looks like it was taken by google for the street view.
This was the most horrifying expieience in our lives all we want to know is why we can’t move our vehicles. That is all we have left and its been 2 days and now they are letting our cars burn up. They could move them awawy from the fire that they can’t seem to put out but why would they let 3 vehicles start burning all over again. That’s all we have and they won’t tell us anything except if we don’t stay away we will go to jail . Someone needs to talk to us explain why did they let our cars burn. The officer watching the area is watching TV and letting all we have burn. We need answers from someone please help us find answers. Julie Dearman and Terri Shideler.
Looks like the Fire Dept didn’t quite get it all out because the fire started back up again in the shed out front. It started up around 11am. I really feel bad for those involved.
I think they need to bring in an investegator from Phoenix, someone with experience in this kind of thing, according to the officer that I spoke to, LaPaz doesn’t have the training to do decent fire forensics. We also need a water source so the trucks don’t run out of water while fighting a blaze, oh maybe they forgot about the water tank on the top of the hill.
If you look at the after photo, you will see a shed on the left in front of the white truck, it blazed up around noon today 4/26/14 and burned the truck and the red car next to it. They weren’t allowed to have their vehicles moved, how and why did this happen?
It’s symbolic of Parker, where it seems like “good enough” is the standard.
HOW COME FRIDAY MORNING I HEAR THE FIRST TANKER HAD NO WATER IN IT?? HOW COME AS YOU WATCH THE VIDEO, ONLY 2 HOSES ARE BEING USED TO FIGHT THE FIRES?? THERE IS GOING TO BE A LOT OF WHY’S FROM NOW ON!! WHY WEREN’T THE TWO VEHICLES MOVED ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON TO BE SAVED,WHY??? WHY ON SATURDAY IT TOOK BUCKSKIN FIRE DEPT 25 MIN. TO GET HERE?? THERE ARE A LOT OF QUESTIONS THAT NEED ANSWERED!!AND A LOT OF WHYS???
We as tax payers have a lot of taxes going to the fire dept. but I also heard, and saw a lack of water, owners were told that they could not look for keys or move vehicles even though they had nothing to do with the fire, a flare up on Saturday took out the truck and one car that may have been otherwise alright with a few issues that may not of mattered, Now??? totaled. We do not have a fire investigater, not one with the proper training to even figure out where it started let alone why. I have been here over thirty years and sadly have not seen a saved home, I have only seen the dept trying to keep ajoining homes safe. obviously our taxes are not going for training.
I just read the EDIT about what fire depts were on scene, the first respoders were Buckskin fire, then Parker and Crit, why show up with empty or partialy empty trucks?