Stubborn blaze: Firefighters from throughout Vernon County battle house fire

An hour and a half into the battle, firefighters from several different departments attack the still blazing fire from the front and the rear with powerful streams of pumped water. "It's being stubborn," said Walker firefighter Russell Hays. --Photos by Rusty Murry/Daily Mail

When Walker Fire Chief Andy Hays and his brother and volunteer fire fighter Russell responded to a structure fire at 14453 E. Edmonds Road in Horton about noon Tuesday,they found the single-story rented home of Angela McCale ablaze and belching smoke.

The men sprang into action getting the first stream of water on the house, before being joined by other firefighters from Compton Junction, Nevada and Rich Hill.

Before he geared up, Hays beat back the most obvious and threatening flames while McCale spoke with Vernon County sheriff's deputies and watched her smoking, burning house from a distance. McCale said she and her son Leland were watching TV when she smelled the smoke.

Walker Fire Chief Andy Hays (left) and his brother Russell work feverishly to pull hoses off the first truck on the scene to attack flames consuming a house at 14453 E. Edmonds Road in Horton on Tuesday, May 25.

A quick check on something she had cooking in the kitchen revealed nothing suspicious, so she looked down the hallway and saw smoke coming from under a door. "When I opened the door, a cloud of black smoke just overwhelmed me," she said. She managed to get her 6-year-old son and one of her dogs out, but she wasn't sure of the other pet.

Other trucks and firefighters began showing up, suiting up and working to save the home. When one crew would start to work, firefighters who had been fighting the fire and the 80 degree heat would take a rest before getting back on the line. McCale, flush with heat and emotion, stood silently watching for a moment. Tears streaming down her cheeks she said, "I just know my stuff's gone; everything I own is there."

After an hour, the blaze was still going strong. Extinguished in one part of the house, fire would appear in another. More tactics were brought into play. The garage door was torn open and holes were cut into the roof to let the heat escape from the building. The power was disconnected.

Vernon County Ambulance District personell check the blood pressure of Compton Junction firefighter Terry Ravard after Ravard spent nearly an hour fighting Tuesday's blaze in Horton. Ravard's pulse was a bit low and he needed to rehydrate. The VCAD also delivered bottled water to the scene so firefighters could stay hydrated in the 80-degree heat.

And the flames continued to flick at the edges of the holes in the roof until they gained a hold and rose several feet into the air. Soffits were torn open, a hole was cut into the wall of the garage and resting firefighters stripped their protective clothing to cool off. Drenching wet, they looked as if they could have been standing in a shower.

Emergency medical personnel from the Vernon County Ambulance District arrived on the scene to distribute bottled water and monitor the health of fire fighters, who fought the blaze for several hours before they managed to put it out.

According to Nevada Fire Chief Robert Benn, Captain Tim Bullard, who was on the scene for at least three hours, said one reason fighting the blaze was difficult was because the structure had been added onto several times, and because it was unsafe for firefighters to enter the building and fight it from the inside. The blaze was finally extinguished after firefighters called in additional manpower and spent several hours on the scene. No definite cause for the fire had been determined as of late Tuesday afternoon, and the structure is a total loss.