Wednesday, March 21, 2001

The cause of a fire that destroyed the home of Richard Stivers on Monday is believed to have originated in a living-room chair.

Austin Fire Chief Dan Wilson told reporters that Stivers attempted to extinguish the blaze in the chair with a fire extinguisher, but was unsuccessful and forced to flee his home.

Firefighters were called to the Stivers residence at 1701 12th St. SW Monday morning and discovered the downstairs portion of the two-story home engulfed in smoke and flames.

According to the fire chief, the fire quickly spread from the living room in the west portion of the house to the east or rear portion, where a deck is located.

Stivers is staying at the Days Inn in Austin.

Also at the address is Stivers Nursery and Landscaping business, which was undamaged.

Stivers is a well-known historian and also a veteran of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War and his home was filled with historical artifacts and other collectibles.

There was some dispute about the time it took for emergency services personnel to arrive at the scene Monday morning.

Phil Koontz, a manager at the Casey’s General Store across 12th Street SW from the scene of the fire, and customers in the store at the time of the fire maintain they called as early as 9:35 a.m. Monday to report seeing smoke and flames coming from the residence.

Fire Chief Wilson said the call came in at the Austin-Mower County Law Enforcement Center at 9:49 a.m. Monday.

Wilson also acknowledged he was the first on the scene, arriving before Austin Police Department officers and firefighters. He also said he was the last to be paged to respond to the emergency.

However, he said the response time of firefighters – four minutes – was adequate for the emergency.

He also said mechanical problems involving one of the trucks and its hose at the scene were not caused by a firefighter and caused only a 30-second delay. The mechanical failure has happened "two or three times before" in recent firefighting history.

With windows breaking, the fire was fueled by oxygen and spread quickly throughout the home despite Stivers’ valiant attempts to extinguished it.

"The fire spread so fast from the west to the east, from the living room to the back of the house in a flashover that didn’t take very long," Wilson explained to reporters.

As to the cause of the blaze, which destroyed Stivers’ home and possessions, the fire chief said, "We know he is a smoker and it is likely that may have happened to cause this fire."

Call Lee Bonorden at 434-2232 or e-mail him at newsroom@austindailyherald.com.