Sean C. Morgan
A flue fire destroyed a Holley home, formerly the Holley Grange Hall, early Monday morning.
There were no injuries.
Firefighters responded to the fire at 40359 Holley Heights Loop, the home of Brandon Henry, 25, his wife Jesse Burnett, 32, and their two dogs, at 2:15 a.m.
The property is owned by Northern Investments.
Firefighters estimated the damage at about $55,000 for the building and contents, said Battalion Chief Guy Smith.
The fire apparently spread from a faulty chimney into the attic and the rest of the house, Smith said.
Burnett said the couple went to bed around midnight Sunday and that the wood stove was cold by then.
“No embers – nothing,” she said.
Around 2, she said, she woke up, though she has no idea why.
“The first thing I noticed was a red glow on the ceiling and something dripping onto the floor.”
Apparently, she said, metal sheeting behind the wood stove in the building had heated up earlier in the day and “caught the wall on fire, then it went up the chimney and caused the attic to catch on fire.”
She awakened Henry, who realized the building was on fire. But when they turned on the lights, they couldn’t see anything, Burnett said.
“Everything looked normal – there was absolutely nothing. I said, ‘Shut off the light,’ and when we did he said he could see that red glow again.”
She called 9-1-1 about 2:14, and started gathering critical medications and their two dogs, a border collie-cocker spaniel mix and a Labrador-Airedale mix, while Henry tried to battle the flames in the attic.
She got outside with the dogs and critical items and then moved their vehicles away from the house.
“I well thought out what I should take,” she said. “My No. 1 priority was the dogs.”
The Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District responded with seven pieces of apparatus and 20 firefighters.
The couple have been in touch with the Red Cross and received assistance from the volunteer firefighters’ burnout fund, Smith said.
The Grange Hall building served as a community center for Holley over many years, said Catherine Harriman, whose husband, Mills Harriman, was the last grange master.
The Holley Grange was established in 1903, celebrating its centennial anniversary on Jan. 26, 2003. At that time, the Holley Grange had 55 members, the eldest of whom was Elsie Robnett Brown, who had been a member for 63 years.
The Holley Grange charter was granted following a meeting at Holley School with the 12 charter members. Meetings were held at the school and the Baptist church before the building was erected on land donated by Norvel Rice.
Lumber for construction was hauled from Chandler Mountain, and the work completed by the men and boys of the Holley community, said Harriman, who was a member for 34 years. Roy Banta and another young man received a $5 gold piece to dig a 16-foot well.
The building served many purposes besides grange meetings, Harriman said. When community leaders realized that some students were not finishing high school because they could not afford to attend school in Sweet Home, they started a high school in the Grange Hall. The class included 15 students, and with teacher Hazel Traver, they met in the kitchen.
In 1948, it also served as a temporary location for students when a fire destroyed Holley School.
Throughout the years, it functioned as a community center, with community suppers, political meetings, auctions, flea markets, plays, family gatherings, wedding receptions, church and Sunday School.
One of the biggest activities was the annual Holley Grange Fair, which at one point rivaled the County Fair in attendance, Harriman said.
For one day, people of all ages gathered to enjoy barbecue chicken, corn on the cob and homemade pie, and Bertha Malone’s butterscotch pie was a favorite. The fair continued into the early 2000s.
Grange organizations began in the 1860s as a way to help farmers after the Civil War. It provided a means for sharing ideas on agriculture and to organize cooperative buying. It provided a political voice for issues involving agriculture, expanding in time to include industrial and educational issues. Insurance also was available through grange organizations.
“Now the Holley Grange is gone, but it left many of us with cherished memories of good friends and good times shared with them,” Harriman said during the centennial celebration. The Holley organization merged with the Lacomb Grange in 1994.
“It’s just real sad,” Harriman said about the fire. “It’s like somebody died.”
Burnett said she and her husband had lived in the building for about two months and Henry had just finished walling off the open area in the open-floor-plan hall, creating a bedroom and a living room.
“It was absolutely amazing for the short time we lived there,” she said.
The couple already have a new home, provided by their landlord, she said, but they’ve lost just about everything else.
“We have a long ways to go,” Burnett said. “We have to replace the majority of our clothing. It was a total loss other than what we were able to grab.”
She said if people want to help, they can contact her at O’Reilly’s auto parts store, at the corner of 10th and Main, where she works.
“Prayers would be greatly appreciated,” she said. Photo by Sean C. Morgan
FIREFIGHTERS spray water on the old Holley Grange Hall.