News Article - Sterling House Fire

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thanks to Ralph Harris for this article and accompanying photos

Mobile home on Ison Road burns down today
By Marcela Creps
331-4375 | mcreps@heraldt.com
9/19/2007

A double-wide mobile home on Ison Road was destroyed by fire this morning, but no one was home at the time of the blaze.

“Thirty years,” Diana Sterling cried as she stood in the yard looking at the smoking wreckage of her home. “Thirty years.”
Sterling rushed to her home at 6989 Ison Road Wednesday morning after hearing reports of a structure fire there. She walked up the gravel driveway in tears when she realized the home she’d lived in for 30 years was destroyed. She was unable to salvage anything from the home.
Van Buren Township Fire Chief Tim Deckard said a pilot of a plane flying overhead saw the fire and reported it to the tower. Without an exact address, firefighters began driving the area south of the airport to look for the fire. The main engine headed down Ind. 45 West while the deputy chief headed down Dunlap. Deckard drove down Ison Road.

“We were kind of shooting in the dark until we could get on the scene and give them an address,” Deckard said.
By the time the fire was found, the home was engulfed. Deckard said he immediately began cooling down the LP gas tank which was making a roaring sound — an indication the contents were boiling. Tanker trucks from Perry Clear Creek and Eastern Greene fire departments were called to the scene to provide water to battle the intense flames. “It was a very hot fire to begin with,” Deckard said with sweat dripping from his face.
As the fire was contained around 11:30, Sterling stood nearby. She hadn’t been able to get in contact with her husband, Donald, who was working in Indianapolis. The couple owns Sterling Glass and Mirror.

Diana Sterling said she’d left for work at 7:30 a.m., three hours after her husband left. She said everything was fine. “This is where my kids all growed up,” she said. EMT’s were at the scene but no injuries among firefighters were reported. No cause has been determined for the fire.