Fire destroys couple's home in Wharton

A Wharton area home was gutted by fire despite a major effort that included 12 vehicles responding to the scene Friday morning.

Assistant Fire Chief Paul Shannon said around 15,000 gallons of water were poured into the home of John and Patsy Kincer at 418 CR 235 during the effort to quench the blaze.

Losing the home was disappointing, Kincer said, but not a disaster. The couple had no pets and both were at work when the fire happened.

"I'm just thankful my wife and I are okay," he said. "We've got insurance. It's too soon to say if we will restore or rebuild. That's something we need to think about. The biggest loss was the photographs. My wife is kind of the family historian, so we lost not only the pictures important to us, but many that were important to the whole family."

The first trucks were toned out at 10:30 a.m., en route by 10:35 a.m. and had it under control by 11:34. The fire was ruled out at 12:06 p.m., but firefighters remained at the scene to continue to pour water on potential hot spots.

Wharton responded to the scene with five trucks and 14 firefighters while Hungerford joined them as the first to make the scene and contributed two trucks and six firemen.