Possible arson fire burns home

By Wendy Burton
Phoenix Correspondent

July 03, 2009 11:48 pm

— Cathy Gardenhire’s neighbors at 30th and Arline streets awoke at 4 a.m. to the sound of sirens.
They peered out their windows to find her two story home in flames, some shooting high above the trees.
“You go on vacation and this is what happens,” said one neighbor. “It's a terrible shame.”
Friends that live nearby contacted Terra Woods, the homeowner’s daughter, early that morning to give her the news.
“This is the only place she had to go,” Woods, sobbing, said about her mother who is on vacation in Tennessee. “She wasn’t supposed to come back until Aug. 3.”
The wood-siding house showed no signs of serious damage from the front, except smoke marks around doors and windows – particularly the upstairs.
However, when Woods went around back to look, she found that her mother's bedroom and a great deal of the upstairs had been completely consumed.
“It’s all burned up,” Woods cried. “It’s all gone!”
Woods, her mother, sister and daughter moved to Muskogee from California about four years ago.
Woods’ daughter lives with Gardenhire, and the sister lives in a tiny detached house next to the house.
The sister was also vacationing at the time of the fire, but did have a cat inside the apartment.
“I’m going to see if the firefighters will let me get the cat out,” Woods said. “Someone from Coins For Critters is coming to get him until my sister can get home.”
Not only did Gardenhire lose the usual possessions, but also some items precious to the family.
Last year, Woods lost a nephew, whose belongings were stored inside the house.
“My daughter’s bed is gone; it was my nephew’s; his football jersey, all his stuff,” she said. “She (her daughter) is so upset.”
About two weeks ago, someone threatened to burn her mother’s house down, Woods said. The family filed a complaint with the police department.
Firefighters on the scene were unable to tell Woods how the fire started, so she has to call the fire marshal’s office Monday to find out if it was indeed arson.
“It looked like it started in the back, but I didn’t go in and can’t be more specific about it,” said acting Assistant Fire Chief Roger Carter.
Woods called firefighters back out about 10 a.m. after finding a flat roof in the back that had rekindled.
Details from the firefighters that responded to the early call were unavailable since they went off duty soon after the fire, Carter said.
Meanwhile, Gardenhire and her granddaughter feels helpless in Tennessee, Woods said.

Gardenhire doesn’t know what comes next. Her mortgage company carries the insurance, and they are out of the office for the holiday, Woods said. She’ll be waiting by the phone for them to call Monday.

“We want to come home, but I’ve only got a hundred dollars in my pocket,” Gardenhire, distraught and sobbing, said over the phone.
Woods and her sister convinced their mother to stay in Tennessee, since there is not much she can do here at this time.
“It was a good thing they both (house and apartment) didn’t burn down,” Woods said. “At least they have the little house to come back to and stay in for a while.”

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