PEA RIDGE — Bob and Robbin Phillips were enjoying their company from out of town Thursday evening when a fire burst from the garage. Flames erupted from the “kit car” being built in the garage.
“I got everyone out of the house - the dogs and everyone.
Then I got a garden hose, but it kept flaming up,” Phillips said.
“I was dumping gallons of water on it.”
Pea Ridge Fire Chief Frank Rizzio was one of the first on the scene and aimed the water hose directly at the ever-increasing flames in the garage. He was soon joined by other Pea Ridge firefighters, as well as firefighters from Little Flock and Northeast Benton County. The men and women took turns suiting up, donning oxygen tanks and then fighting the flames, as well as searching for any other fire in the house.
Phillips and his brother-in-law were building the kit car - a 1929 Mercedes on a 1976 Pinto body.
“We were trying to get it running. I guess the electric wiring caught on fire,” he said.
The Phillips family has owned the four-bedroom house at 188 W. Patton Street since 2003.
News, Pages 1 on 06/20/2012