De Queen Fire Department personnel were called out to a home on fire at 125 E. Harvey Drive, Wednesday, Jan. 9, at around 3:38 p.m. Firefighters arrived four minutes later and found smoke pouring out from both the eaves and windows. After they had made entry and were inside, it was reported that someone was in the house. At the same time, a 20-year-old man had opened a bedroom window and crawled out.
“A minute, a minute-and-a-half later, he wouldn’t have made it, the smoke was so bad” said Fire Chief Dennis Pruitt.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze, which had begun near a bed. Pruitt said he spoke to a 6-year-old child, one of three at the home, asking him if they had been playing with matches on the bed.