Picking up the pieces

Family reflects on lost dogs, saved lives after house fire

January 20, 2006

DAWN DE BUSK\Frontiersman reporter

MEADOW LAKES - Cindi Conner has always thought her son and his two friends, whom she refers to as &#8220my boys,” were good kids.

But in the early morning hours of Jan. 4, when a fire started in her wood stove pipe and quickly ignited the unfinished ceiling of her home, the three teens - Richard Conner, 16, Marc Jammes, 18, and Kenny Jenks II, 17 - became heroes in her eyes.

When it became evident the wood-stove fire had raged out of control and could not be extinguished from the inside of the house, Conner urged the youths outside while she struggled to save her two frightened dogs - Persia, a German shepherd-Newfound-land mix, and Baby Girl, a Rottweiler.

When she didn't immediately re-emerge, the three teens attempted to go back inside for Cindi, but flames beat the boys back and the smoke was too thick to see anything, they said.

Jammes wrapped his jacket around his face, and re-entered the inferno - screaming for Cindi and listening for her voice.

&#8220Kenny and Richard got a face full of flames. And they were saying, ‘We've got to get her out.' I kept yelling and feeling in the dark,” Jammes said.

He found her hunched over the two big dogs, but unable to make them budge because of their fear and her injured back, Conner said.

&#8220I picked her up, and pushed her out,” Jammes said.

A few minutes later, the foursome stood in shock as they saw the roof collapse and the structure they had once called home became a bonfire in the chill of the winter night.

Now, their emotions range from thankfulness that they're alive and that people in the community have provided them with some basic necessities - like winter gear, clothes, food, and an RV in which to live until they rebuild - to extreme sorrow at losing their two dogs and valued belongings.

&#8220I wish I'd left the dogs outside that night,” Cindi Conner said.

Her son, Richard, was sleeping i n a front room on the opposite end of where the wood stove was located when the fire started. His best friends, who had been sitting in the living room chatting with Cindi around 1 a.m., woke him after the commotion of trying to put out the fire didn't rouse him.

As the plastic-and-insulation covered ceiling morphed into flames and falling debris, the 300 wind chimes Cindi collected turned into little firebombs as the flames traveled down each string and the various materials exploded.

After the Meadow Lakes, Big Lake and Houston fire departments and several tankers arrived, Cindi's mom kept pots of coffee going for the firefighters. Later, all four were taken to the Valley Hospital for smoke inhalation and Cindi suffered burns on her hand and the side of her face.

On the night of the fire, the four tried to use garden hoses to extinguish the fire, but the hoses were frozen and the thawed-out ones were inside the house. Food in two freezers just outside the front door was destroyed, including a turkey and a ham. A few building materials - some of which Cindi had planned to toss out - were salvaged and placed in a shed on the property.

Conner left the house wearing only a short-sleeved T-shirt and shorts, but managed to save his American-English pit bull, Trina, and his PlayStation II.

Meanwhile, Jenks expressed sorrow over the loss of his belongings.

&#8220I was just crying. I lost all my personal items - photos and memorabilia of my baby sister who died and one of my best friends who died in high school,” Jenks said.

Jammes tried to recall the night with more light-heartedness. He said the song by the Bloodhound Gang, &#8220The Roof is On Fire” kept coursing through his head as they battled to quell flames before firefighters arrived.

&#8220I've lost so many possessions in my life, that didn't really faze me,” Jammes said.

Jammes said that when the house succumbed to flames, he thought of asking, ‘Where are the marshmallows?' but checked himself because that might be inappropriate. On Tuesday, he cracked a joke and Cindi burst out laughing.

&#8220Humor is the only way we get through this,” Cindi said, using her cane to help her walk around the former home with the three teens.

Richard Conner crossed the threshold of the dwelling, passed by what was once the kitchen and stopped to point out how the microwavable taquitos were still recognizable, spilled across the guts of the refrigerator. Then, he heads to the culprit - the wood stove. A $90 sled used to haul in firewood was nothing but metal runners. The fire left some of the wood untouched.

Cindi pointed out the spot in the charred living area where she last saw two of the family dogs, and the springs of the chair that once provided her back support. She opened the top drawer of a blackened bureau and, to her surprise, saw her jewelry box. At first, the discovery delighted her, but as she pulls out a tangle of hoops that couldn't be distinguished as silver or gold, tears welled up in her eyes.

&#8220That's why I quit digging through this,” she said, shaking her head. Then, she collected herself with the promise of rebuilding again on the parcel her grandparents owned and that she shares with her mom and siblings, all of whom live in separate structures.

Her house was where everyone had gathered for Christmas dinner this year, she said. And with 2006 still young, circumstance brought her and three teens the challenge of thinking on their feet and ultimately surviving.

&#8220I am thankful for my boys. They are my three hometown heroes. Even though Marc pulled me out of the fire, they all did their part to try to put it out,” she said.

Contact Dawn De Busk at

352-2252 or frontiersman.com.