Fire damages unoccupied house in Freeman; owner died recently

Fire raged through a small home near Freeman on Wednesday afternoon.

Kelli Hart and Chad St. Paul sat on lawn chairs nearby and despaired over the loss.

According to St. Paul, the house at 15416 S. Jackson Road was owned by St. Paul’s grandfather, Donald Widmer, who recently died. The property is in the process of being sold. All of Widmer’s possessions were in the burned house, St. Paul said.

St. Paul and Hart live in a manufactured home just a few feet from the one that burned. The couple said they were sleeping when the fire started. A stranger knocked on their front door and told them the house was on fire.

St. Paul and Hart said they have no idea what would have caused the unoccupied house to burn.

Firefighters got a call that smoke was pouring from the small, yellow house at 3:05 p.m., said Fire District 8 acting Chief Dan Blystone. Fire District 11 also helped fight the fire. The house sits just a short distance from Freeman Elementary School.

Blystone said firefighters struggled to put out the blaze, which kept re-igniting because of a strong wind.

Blystone said he does not know what started the fire. Investigators will likely let the remains cool before beginning an investigation, Blystone said.

St. Paul is convinced that someone deliberately started the fire.

“I’m thinking arson myself, because there was nothing in there that could’ve magically started fire,” he said.

The property was raided by the SWAT team in April. Detectives allegedly found small amounts of cocaine, crack cocaine, methamphetamine and hallucinogenic mushrooms during the raid.