Blaze destroys Barton Mill Road home; woman and granddaughter escape unharmed

Firefighters from the Oak Grove Volunteer Fire Department work to extinguish a blaze that destroyed a home on Barton Mill Road Sunday evening. The blaze was likely caused by a malfunctioning air conditioner.

Neighbors tried to console Pat Strunk as she tightly hugged her step granddaughter, Emma, beneath a shade tree Sunday evening. She watched helplessly as volunteer firefighters tried desperately to extinguish the flames that consumed her home.

"Clothes and things like that can be replaced, but things like pictures and special items … I’m already thinking about how hard that is going to be to deal with," Strunk said with surprising stoicism given the tragedy.

"That’s just stuff that’s hard to replace."

The blaze was reported around 8:00 p.m. Sunday. The home, located on Barton Mill Road, just outside of Corbin, was already fully engulfed in flame when members of the Oak Grove Volunteer Fire Department arrived on the scene.

They knocked the main portion of the fire back quickly, but struggled to completely extinguish the blaze because of blistering hot temperatures.

Strunk, who lived at the home alone, said she was running a bath for her granddaughter when she smelled smoke. The fire started near a window air conditioning unit.

"I’m pretty sure the wiring shorted out or something," Strunk said. "My air conditioning has been running steady all day long. It gets hot sometimes. That’s about where is started. I think it was maybe the electrical cord that caused it."

Strunk said she tried to put the fire out herself with a garden hose, to no avail.

"It just kept going up the wall. I couldn’t stop it. I just grabbed her [Emma] and got her out of the house," Strunk said. "The whole wall was on fire."

Members of the Oak Grove Volunteer Fire Department were first to respond. They were assisted by firefighters from Woodbine Volunteer Fire Department.

No one was injured in the blaze. The home is considered a total loss.