Fire destroys home on Graham Road

A couple’s home of more than 40 years was destroyed in a fire Wednesday morning.

And now, police are investigating who stole a vehicle from the property.

Just before 5 a.m., firefighters were called to the home at 2410 N. Graham Road, just outside of Franklin. The home was engulfed in flames when they arrived, Franklin Fire Department spokesman Brad Epperson said. A neighbor called 911 after hearing an alarm go off and seeing the back of the home was on fire, according to a police report.

The owners were out of town, and no one was in the home, he said.

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The two-story brick home is a total loss, he said. A brick chimney and walls were all that remained.

Devastating was the word Jim Higginbotham used to describe the fire that destroyed the home his in-laws, Forrest and Pauline Wells, built nearly 43 years ago to the day. On Wednesday morning, he paced around the perimeter of the home, making phone calls and watching firefighters douse small fires that had been re-igniting around what remained of the house.

Higginbotham received a call about 5:30 a.m. Wednesday alerting him to the fire. He wasn’t able to retrieve anything from inside. The Wells family had planned to be in Florida for the winter, but are now returning to Franklin and will likely stay with him, Higginbotham said.

In addition to the fire, the family was also dealing with the theft of the van, which had been parked on the property.

Police were called to the home when firefighters noticed a door was open on the barn. An officer found a shoe print on the door and that it had been forced open, according to a Franklin Police Department report.

Family members began arriving, and noticed that the van was missing from the property, Sheriff Doug Cox said. Whether anything was missing from the home may never be known due to the damage from the blaze, Cox said.

Investigators later found the vehicle in a downtown Franklin organization’s parking lot, and saw it was covered in snow, meaning it was likely stolen before the fire happened, Cox said.

Fire officials were looking at all angles of what could have caused the fire, as they would with any investigation. The theft from the property was not leading them in any specific direction on the investigation, he said.

A large amount of ice in and around the home, along with the cold temperatures and continuing hot spots had delayed an investigator from getting into the home to try to find where the fire started and what caused it, Epperson said.

Fighting the blaze was challenging due to bitter cold temperatures and the lack of fire hydrants in the area, requiring fire departments to use tanker trucks to bring water to fight the flames, he said.

Cold temperatures can cause problems with vehicles and lines to freeze. Ice forms all around, making it difficult to get fire trucks in and out. And fire officials had to watch their firefighters to make sure they were not suffering from hypothermia, he said.

“These kind of conditions are very challenging to the fire department,” he said.

Firefighters had the fire out in about three hours, but continued putting out hot spots throughout the day Wednesday, he said.