Ash Grove home total loss in fire No injuries in blaze, source still unknown

An Ash Grove house on the 200 block of North Calhoun was completely destroyed by fire in the early morning hours of Saturday, Nov. 12. Gary Keen and his wife Sarah, the owners of the house, lost practically all of their possessions in the blaze.
A post on the Ash Grove Fire Protection District’s Facebook page stated that the house was a total loss, but fortunately, nobody was hurt. The AGFPD also credited neighboring fire protection districts for helping to put out the fire.
“(A) big thank you to Bois D’Arc Fire, Willard Fire, Brookline, Halltown, Battlefield and Ebenezer Fire for the mutual aid assistance,” the post stated. A request for comment made to the AGFPD had received no response as of press time.
Payton Keen, Gary and Sarah’s granddaughter, said the cause of the blaze was still a matter of speculation.
“The only assumption anybody has right now is the fireplace,” she said, “then an electric chair caught on fire.”
Payton also said she would be collecting donations of necessities for her grandparents, including money and clothing, and that she would be working out a means of collecting the donations soon. Paige Randall, another of Gary and Sarah’s grandchildren, created a GoFundMe page to raise monetary donations for the couple. As of press time, the page had raised $6,035 out of a $6,000 fundraising goal.
The GoFundMe page can be found online on at www.gofundme.com/f/gary-and-sarah-keen.