Published: May 19, 2009 09:27 pm      

Fire chief: Father did all he could

Deadly Flora fire believed result of lightning strike

FLORA — Get help.

That’s the only thing the father and husband whose family was killed Friday in a house fire could do.

And Dr. Brian Wagoner did everything in his power to get that help, according to the chief of the Flora Fire Department.

“He did all he could to save his family," said Scott Sisson, chief of the Flora Fire Department.

But in the end, the fire claimed his wife, Leah Wagoner, 40, and their two children, Harrison, 8, and Sophia, 4.

The deaths have had an impact on the Flora community, which had already borne the brunt of a deadly fire a month earlier.

Neighbor Denton Hahn said you couldn’t find nicer people than the Wagoners, who he called active members of the community.

“They were good Christians,” Hahn said. “They were strong in their faith. They were the nicest kids you ever saw.”

His sentiments must have been shared by many in the community as a long line of cars took part Tuesday in the funeral procession from Faith Baptist Church in Lafayette to the Maple Lawn Cemetery in Flora.

Bouquets of flowers lay in the driveway of the home on Carroll County Road 100N.

Fuzzy dog slippers were left in the yard, a memorial to the children lost in the fire.

There’s little left of the home. Though fire crews arrived within minutes, the house was already 80 percent engulfed in flames.

“It was a bad as I’ve ever seen,” Sisson said.

“We had just got back from a run,” Sisson said of the 11:30 p.m. call. “There was still four of us at the station. We were there in minutes.”

Sisson said Brian Wagoner was distraught and frantic at the scene but was able to provide firefighters with the bedroom locations for his wife and two children.

Wagoner was alerted to the fire and tried to wake up his wife. Unable to do so, he went to see what was going on, Sisson said.

Thinking the fire was outside the house, Wagoner left through the front doors, severely burning his hands on the door knob.

Once outside, he knew he had to get help.

“He broke into the garage through a window,” Sisson said. “He got out of the garage by driving through the overhead doors and went to a neighbor’s.”

With his neighbor calling 911, Wagoner returned to his house to save his family. He broke out the windows trying to gain entry to the master bedroom and his daughter’s bedroom.

The neighbor, who asked to not be identified, said Wagoner came racing up his driveway and stopped just shy of his back door.

“He said, ‘Call 911; my house is on fire,’” the neighbor said. “His hands and face were burnt. He came inside for a minute to run cold water over his hands and then ran back to his house.”

By that time, the flames were shooting 20 to 30 feet in the air, according to the neighbor.

Fire officials now believe the fire was caused by a lightning strike. Hahn said a thunderstorm was rolling through the area at the time of the fire.

“It was pretty bad,” the family’s neighbor said of the storm.

Rachel Meyer, public information officer for the state fire marshal’s office, said Tuesday the fire’s cause had not been determined, but had been preliminarily ruled as accidental.

“We are waiting on a report from the insurance company, which is inspecting the wiring in the home,” she said.

The investigation is ongoing.

As officials work to find out what went wrong that night, one Flora police officer, Josh Disinger, is recovering from wounds incurred while trying to save the family.

Sisson said Disinger broke out the window of Sophia’s bedroom, suffering severe injuries in the process. Disinger had injuries to an artery and cut tendons, he said.

“He did an extraordinary thing and stood there despite his own injuries and waited for the firefighter to hand out the little girl,” Sisson said. “He then took her to the ambulance.”

If Disinger had entered the house without breathing apparatus, Sisson said, he wouldn’t have made it out.

“I can’t fault anyone,” Sisson said of the efforts to save the family.

• Ken de la Bastide is the Kokomo Tribune enterprise editor. He can be reached at (765) 454-8580 or via e-mail at ken.delabastide@kokomotribune.com