December 10, 1984

Weekend fires severely damage four homes

       Two weekend fires extensively damaged four residences in the Johnson County area, the most serious fire being a $200,000 blaze at the Casa Del Prado condominiums located a half mile north of Greenwood on Madison Avenue.  Fire also heavily damaged a physician’s home in Windsong Estates in White River Township Sunday night.  Twenty Perry Township Fire Department members and eight men from the Greenwood Volunteer Fire Department battled the Casa Del Prado blaze for five hours Saturday.  Hot ashes in a trash can in a shed under a Casa Del Prado condominium Saturday afternoon is believed to be the cause of the $200,000 fire, said Perry Township Fire Investigator, Duane Huffines.  Huffines said the trash can was in a shed under the stairway of a condominium owned by Dr. Raymond Parker.  The ashes that had been removed from the Parker’s fireplace had caught fire and burned through the stairway up to the Parker’s residence, Huffines said.

         The fire was discovered when Bonnie Lorber-Parker, Parker’s wife, saw flames jumping up the side of her home as she looked out a window, said daughter Patty Parker.  Mrs. Parker opened the front door to find the stairway engulfed in flames.  Mrs. Parker awakened her stepson, Steve, 26, who was asleep in the rear master bedroom.  Parker broke out the second story bedroom window, lowered himself down the wall, and jumped to the ground.  Parker caught his mother, stepsister Diane Lorber, and an unidentified friend of Ms. Lorber’s as they jumped from the window.  Raymond Parker was not at home when the fire occurred.  Two cats and one dog, all family pets, perished in the blaze.

         Annette Jones, 8512 Palo Verde Court, who lives in a downstairs condominium, said she was making tea for herself and her daughter, Amy Rogers, when a woman knocked on her door and told her there was a fire.  “Thank God that woman warned us because we had no indication there was a fire,” Mrs. Jones said.  Leslie Little, 82, 8514 Palo Verde Terrace, said he heard three or four small explosions just before someone knocked on his door and told him to leave his condominium.  A fourth unit in the building was vacant.  Mrs. Jones and Little were able to salvage furniture and clothing from their home, but most of the Parker’s belongings burned in the fire.  Margaret Differding, whose husband, Paul, is president of the Casa Del Prado Homeowner’s Association, said indications are that the entire building will have to be rebuilt.

         Terri Pellow, 30, 3419 Willow Wind Drive, Greenwood, will have to decide whether to rebuild her $110,000 home that was extensively damaged by fire Sunday night.  Thirty six firefighters from White River, Greenwood, Bargersville fire departments and the White River Volunteer Fire Department Cadet program for teenagers fought the blaze for four hours, White River Assistant Fire Chief Pat McDaniel said.  An electrical short in a recessed light in a living room ceiling is believed to have caused the blaze, Mrs. McDaniel said.  Ms. Pellow told fire officials she noticed smoke coming from the light shortly after 7 p.m. Sunday.  Ms. Pellow said she went to use her phone to report the fire, but the phone was dead.  Ms. Pellow’s smoke alarm began to sound as she ran out of her home to phone the fire department from a neighbor’s house.  Before firefighters arrived, Ms. Pellow said an unknown passerby entered her home to save her pet cat, Spunky.  Greenwood Volunteer fireman Jeff Dillman found Ms. Pellow’s other pet cat, Missy, in a rear area of the home and carried it to safety.  See a related story HERE.
 
 

---