December 23, 1997

Toys collected for fire victims

       Santa heard about the children who lost their gifts in a mobile home fire Sunday, and he has put his elves to work to make their Christmas brighter.  Members of the White River Township Fire Department, who put out the blaze in the Friendly Village Trailer Park, have been collecting toys for the children who lived there.  Mike Callahan was out of town with his two children when the blaze broke out at 2:50 am. In his home. The children live in Kokomo with their mother but had gifts awaiting them under the tree.  Three other children, ages 4 through 8, lived in the mobile home with their mother, Patti Brackett.  “We wanted to make sure they wouldn’t have to go without,” said Lt. Troy Wymer, public information officer for the fire department.  Santa will even visit the kids at noon Christmas Eve at White River Township Fire Station 52 at 398 Meridian Parke Drive.  Firefighters are taking donations of toys and clothes for the children. Items can be dropped off before Christmas Eve at the station, just west of State Road 135 and south of Fairview Road in Greenwood.  Clothing especially is needed for two 8-year-old girls, a 6-year-old girl, a 4-year-old boy and a 7-year-old boy.  “What we really need are underwear and pajamas - new stuff,’ Wymer said.   Callahan has been given clothing vouchers from the Johnson County Red Cross and Wal-Mart.  He and Brackett could not be reached for comment, but they were reportedly staying with relatives.

         Their mobile home burned after a spark ignited a live Christmas tree that was too dry.  A spark apparently jumped from a nearby outlet or from the tree lights, which were on a timer.  It took firefighters an hour to extinguish the blaze, which totally destroyed the home and everything inside. Only one of Cauahan’s two cats was found, but the other was not inside the trailer.  Wymer said Christmas trees spark about one fire a year somewhere in the county and that the public should be careful to keep live trees properly watered.  To keep a natural Christmas tree moist reduce the likelihood of fire, Wymer rece mended using the following mixture in the base of the tree: water mixed with a little sugar and Karo syrup and a small amount of Woolite.  “That allows the tree to soak it up better,’ he said.  He said people living in mobile homes should be especially cautious because those dwellings tend to be more flammable.  “If you live in a mobile home, we’d ask that you not put up a live tree, just to be safe,’ Wymer said.  (Reprinted with permission from the Daily Journal)

(Click on thumbnail to enlarge photo)
 

---