Fire destroys Cushing home; morning blaze damages trailer in Swift-Shady Grove area

By Trent Jacobs in The Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel
Two house fires in Nacogdoches County on Monday cost one woman her kitchen and another man his entire home. At around 1:30 p.m. Monday, a man left a pile of flaming trash unattended behind his manufactured home on County Road 817 near Cushing. Within a matter of minutes, the fire spread to his home, which was completely destroyed by the ensuing blaze.

“I had a little trash that I was burning in the burning pit out back, and I left it for a few minutes, and (the fire) got out,” the uninjured Floyd Plumber said at the scene of his smoldering home. “I don’t know how it got out of the tin enclosure. I had everything burning in there, but it’s just one of those things. They tell you not to leave fires unattended, but I just thought I had it under control.”

Plumber said he has no insurance, and the fire spread too quickly for him to salvage any property from his home of 25 years. Neighbors were quick to offer him a place to stay, but Plumber said that he also has a travel trailer in storage that he may live in temporarily.

The fire also scorched a large area of woods behind Plumber’s home and threatened a neighboring home so intensely that a fire truck was placed in front of it just in case the flames got too close.

Firefighters from Cushing, Central Heights and Nacogdoches all responded to the fire. Nacogdoches Fire Chief Keith Kiplinger said that wind, dry leaves left over from winter and housekeeping issues all played a factor in the blaze.

“Obviously, in the city limits, there’s no burning allowed, but in the unincorporated areas outside the city, people need to be especially cautious,” Kiplinger said. “They need to pay attention to the winds and pay attention to any organic material on the ground that needs to be cleaned up.”

Earlier in the day, another mobile home on CR 1878 in the Swift-Shady Grove area caught fire and could have ended up as a total loss, as well, had firefighters from Shady Grove, Martinsville and Nacogdoches not arrived on scene when they did, Kiplinger said.

The home’s occupant left in the morning, and a neighbor later saw smoke coming from the home. Firefighters were called in to quell the flames.

“The city firefighters arrived on the scene to find white smoke coming from the house, and the entire kitchen area was involved. But, they were able to stop the fire quickly,” said Kiplinger.

The woman who lived in the home told officials that she remembered turning the stove off before she left the home, but the initial investigation determined that the fire originated on the stove and caused an estimated $15,000 in damage.