Staff photo by Joy Lukachick
The charred remains of this house are all that’s left of 32 Ridgeland Road. Firefighters found 49-year-old Barret Hicks dead inside the Flintstone house early Friday morning.Julia Garren stared at the charred remains of the old house where her uncle died earlier Friday.
“We’re just in shock,” she said, shaking her head. “I expect to wake up from a dream.”
When Garren arrived at her uncle Barton Hicks’ house on Ridgeland Road a little after 6 a.m. Friday, other family members were already there, waiting to see if he was inside the burned home or if he had stayed with a friend.
Minutes later, Hicks’ family was told that the 49-year-old from Flintstone, Ga., had been found dead in his bedroom. One of the firefighters, a friend of Garren’s, told her he was sorry her uncle couldn’t be saved.
Hicks’ death was the first fire fatality in more than three years in Walker County, Fire Chief Randy Camp said.
“It’s a sad day for the county,” he said. “We work hard trying to prevent those things from occurring.”
Safety officials are still investigating what caused the fire, Camp said, but the bedroom had a space heater and the living room had a fireplace, he said.
When firefighters arrived at 5:45 a.m., the fire already had been burning for at least an hour. Part of the roof had collapsed, Camp said.
Firefighters were told Hicks might still be in the house, and they worked quickly to break the windows and search for him inside, Camp said. But when another section of the roof caved in, Camp had to make the call to get his firefighters out of the house.
“It’s a tough decision to make at the time,” he said. “But there was no doubt in my mind when we arrived on the scene that, if somebody was inside, they were already deceased.”
Neighbors also tried to rescue Hicks, said his cousin Susan Roberson.
A neighbor who first saw the flames kicked a door open and Hicks’ dog ran out of the house, Roberson said. But when the neighbor called for Hicks, he didn’t answer and the flames were too high for the neighbor to go inside, she said.
The house has been in the family for 30 years. Its smoke alarms had recently been inspected, Roberson said.
Hicks, a former Navy officer who had been recently unemployed, lived at the house for two years, she said.
“I talked to him yesterday,” she said, her voice trailing off. “It’s just strange.”
Contact staff writer Joy Lukachick at jlukachick@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659.
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