Witnesses say fireworks may have started blaze that destroyed 4 homes on Lake Hamilton

HOT SPRINGS -- Four homes were destroyed by flames that spread quickly late Saturday in the 300 block of Kleinshore Drive on Lake Hamilton, and residents and first responders said Monday that it could have been worse in the dense residential area south of the U.S. 70 bridge.

Kleinshore Drive, the only road in or out of the subdivision, served as a firebreak, protecting homes on the periphery of the four town houses that quickly burned. Officials said the blaze began with a vehicle fire.

Autumn Carlisle, chief of the 70 West Fire Department, said witnesses indicated that fireworks may have ignited the vehicle, which was parked in the carport under the town houses.

The carport ran the length of the four homes, which were also connected by a shared deck that gave the fire an additional route to spread. Carlisle noted that nine vehicles were damaged in the fire.

Resident Craig Davis said embers were flying and people sprayed their roofs with garden hoses. Firefighters arrived in time to extinguish the pine tree canopy above his house.

"That saved my home," he said.

Davis praised the Garland County sheriff's office marine patrol for evacuating residents and pets caught between the fire to the west and south, and Lake Hamilton to the east and north. About a dozen homes in the Kleinshore Property Owners Association front the lake.

Jason Lawrence of the sheriff's office said people were unable to evacuate via Kleinshore Drive, so part-time marine patrol deputies ferried them on the lake to Paradise Cove Marina.

Lawrence said the marine patrol, and Arkansas Game and Fish Commission evacuated 48 people.

Three of the four town homes that were destroyed were already ablaze when 70 West Fire Department firefighters arrived, Carlisle said. The fourth town home was starting to catch fire. Eventually 67 firefighters from eight fire departments worked to extinguish the blaze late Saturday and into Sunday morning.

Carlisle said utility lines did not allow for the use of aerial equipment, and several power lines were knocked loose from their utility poles.

The first 911 call arrived at the sheriff's office call center at 9:54 p.m., Garland County Department of Emergency Management Director Bo Robertson said. The first firefighters arrived at the scene at 10:04 p.m., and immediately called for more help.

Robertson said the Piney Fire Department was dispatched at 10:05 p.m., the Mountain Pine department at 10:09 p.m. and the Lake Hamilton department at 10:35 p.m. The Hot Springs Fire Department said the city dispatch center contacted it at 10:17 p.m., and its firefighters arrived at the fire by 10:21 p.m.

State Desk on 07/05/2017