Jeanne Crawford and Sam Rauch
I hope you know, despite all the negative media news churn around us every day, fact is most people are good folks. I intentionally strike up conversations with people from all walks of life in our community wherever I am, and almost always find good and generous hearts of service.
We are surrounded by countless simple acts of kindness every day -- countless because most go unnoticed, but those that avert disaster deserve a note to remind us all of the goodness of others.
Such was the case on Wednesday morning, when a 127-year-old, three-story wood frame house owned by former elementary school teacher Jeanne Crawford, caught fire. The house is located just above her business, Mountain Memories, on Scenic Highway, at the Incline overpass bridge.
Miss Jeanne (pronounced "Jean E"), who is known and loved by all those students who passed through her LMS classroom prior to her retirement in 2002, and their families, was born in and grew up in a small house that was originally attached to her store. Her family has a long history at that location, and notably, it was her Grampa Leo Lambert, former WWI Marine and early mountain spelunker, who discovered nearby Ruby Falls, which he named for her Grandma Ruby!
The origin of the house fire was likely high wind Tuesday night causing an arc in the power lines leading to her house, resulting in a front wall receptacle short. That short left smoldering materials in the wall for hours before flames broke through the exterior of the front of the house with a fury.
Enter three Good Samaritans, whose quick actions most assuredly saved the old wooden structure from rapid consumption by fire.
First on the scene was Lookout Mountain banker Robert Clark, who noticed the flames as he was driving by. Robert is a Naval Academy graduate and former Naval officer -- and as Navy Vets know, regardless of your shipboard occupational specialty, all sailors are trained first and foremost, to fight fires. It was instinctual for Robert to approach the house and determine how he might extinguish the flames.
He pulled his car into the Mountain Memories lot and ran up the steps to the home, beating on the front door and looking in windows to determine if anyone was in the house. He was joined by another man, whom I was not able to identify, and once calling 911 after determining nobody was in the house, the two then started looking for a method to subdue the flames -- which were now crawling 8-10 feet high up the front wall. Being winter, there were no hoses attached to the house.
At that moment, another good neighbor, Sam Rauch with Metro Plumbing, pulled into the lot to see how he could help. He located a hose near the shop, hooked it up and charged it. But the hose was too short and the water spray could barely reach the house. As Robert filled a bucket with water to dump on the base of the flames, Sam quickly obtained an extension hose from his service vehicle, which he then attached to the existing hose. That allowed the men to dowse the base of the flames, which extinguished them completely.
The whole process took only a matter of minutes, but those involved said it seemed much longer! (They also agreed we have had enough fires near the Incline in recent months!)
By the time firefighters arrived to do a forced entry into the house and a more invasive search of walls for any remaining ignition sources, they agreed with Miss Jeanne that if not for the quick actions of the three men who extinguished the rapidly growing flames, the historic old house would be gone. While there was some interior burn damage on the first floor, the upper two floors suffered only minor smoke damage.
Given her 83 years of accumulated wisdom, Miss Jeanne concluded, "God moved through these men on our behalf, and we are grateful and blessed." For the record, you would not know Jeanne Crawford is 83 - she is feisty and full of life, and an amazing repository of local historical knowledge. Regarding the old home, she mentioned it has been used to serve many over the last century, including missionaries and those experiencing family crisis leaving them without a home.
Thank you to Robert, Sam and the unknown neighbor for their assist on behalf of someone they had never met! Let's all see who along our path needs an assist today, and every day.