Four generations without a home
Fire destroys house
Still reeling from the shock of loosing their home to fire Sunday evening, family members of James and Marilyn Whisenhunt stood nearby the home consoling one another as more relatives and friends arrived for support as they watched firefighters work to extinguish the flames that destroyed the home.
Pea Ridge firefighter Josh Sharkey, who lives nearby, was one of the first people on the scene.
“I arrived and it was fully involved,” Sharkey said Sunday. “They were all already out” he said of occupants of the house.
The two-story house at 16638 Patterson was home to four generations of the Whisenhunt family.
Marilyn Whisenhunt said she and her husband, James, their two grown children Tim and Tanna, a granddaughter (Tim’s daughter)
Megan Leland, and a great-grandson, Chase Leland, live there. She said it was Chase who notified them about the fire.
“The kids yelled downstairs ‘Get out! Get out!,’” she said. “I didn’t get my purse, my phone, anything… I didn’t have a chance. It was just run, run!”
Neighbor Brian Armas said he noticed smoke, black smoke, and was worried.
“I hope it’s not my barn. I jumped in my truck and flew down there and I saw the Whisenhunt place on fire. So I called 911 from the barn (which is across the road).
“I never have reception down there, ever!” he said. “And somehow I managed to call 911 which is just a God thing.”
He said the family was coming out of the house and he said he helped to get them away from the house.
“I knew from the minute I saw the house it was going to be a loss just because we’re out in the county,” he said.
Five fire departments — Rogers, Pea Ridge, Little Flock, Avoca and Northeast Benton County — responded to the scene. The departments were dispatched shortly before 6 p.m. and firefighters remained on the scene until just before 10 p.m.
Chase Leland, 15, a sophomore at PRHS, said he didn’t know what to think. He said he was getting ready for a bath when he saw a fire on the balcony and told his granddad.
“We got everyone out,” he said, shakily. His mother, Megan, was not home at the time.
“It was a big blaze,” Marilyn said. “We’ve got stuff in the attic; we haven’t looked up there for years.”
She said the land has been in the family for many years and that she and her husband lived there many years ago when their son was born, built a new house nearby, moved to town, then back to the farm to care for elderly grandparents. She said the house in which they were living was about 30 years old.
They were able to get their four dogs out safely, she said.
Neighbor Ginny and Sean Harper offered warm jackets, comfort and assistance to the elderly couple and other family.