Right place, right time when fire breaks out

Sometimes it pays to have the right people marry into the family.

On Christmas night, homeowners in eastern Jackson County were in the living room, playing cards with guests, when flames broke through the wall around the fireplace chimney, according to the Prairie Township Fire Protection District.

It so happened that a visiting brother-in-law is a volunteer firefighter in Kansas.

After summoning fire crews, the homeowner and his brother-in-law removed drywall from the garage side of the wall, doused the flames with a garden hose and had most of the fire out when crews arrived from Prairie Township and Lake Lotawana.

Officials said firefighters spent about two hours opening up more of the wall and ceiling to extinguish smoldering insulation, wall studs and ceiling joists in the home, located in the 14000 block of Missouri 7 east of Lee’s Summit.

“We don’t normally encourage people to fight their own structure fires, but we can’t deny that in this case it was a success,” Prairie Township Fire Chief Larry Robinson said in a news release. “Having a trained firefighter there when the fire broke out made all the difference.

“Still, fires, even when small and just breaking out, are a dangerous situation and we stress that people should evacuate a fire building and once out, stay out.”

This story was originally published January 2, 2014 at 9:33 PM with the headline "Right place, right time when fire breaks out."