House Fire on Wornall

House Fire on Wornall

On Thursday afternoon, September 15, a house fire which began in a kitchen overtook the home in a matter of minutes, shooting flames 10 feet long out the back windows, according to neighbors.

The home at 11724 Wornall Rd. is owned by Erlinda Martin. Martin, 76, says she was making a Vietnamese beef tendon soup when it boiled over, spilling grease into the heating unit of her electric coil stove and eventually into its electric component. “Flames went up fast,” she recalls. Martin at first fought the flames with a damp cloth, then tried turning off the breaker switch in the basement. “But it was too dark,” she says.  While flames were jumping on the kitchen floor, Martin, who needs the assistance of a walker and is asthmatic, ran upstairs to awaken her daughter and they both fled the house with cells phones dialed to 9-1-1.

Martin says it took only 5 minutes before the first fire truck arrived and in that time the flames were shooting out the windows. At least a half dozen fire trucks arrived and blocked off the street. The kitchen and all adjacent rooms were damaged, she says, with one room collapsing.

Martin says the house is fully insured. No donations or financial support is necessary. “If someone would like to donate, please give it to the American Red Cross . There are a lot more people who need it than I do,” she says.