A Whiting City Councilman likely has suffered a total loss of his family home as a fire ripped through it late Monday afternoon.
At-Large Councilman Shawn Turpin apologized as he stood staring at the house from across the street. Water poured from the wide-open front door as firefighters started rolling up some of the hoses.
“I’m just shocked,” Turpin said. “Three generations of family have lived in this house, and I just can’t process what I’m seeing.”
Whiting Fire Chief Don Harbin said on the scene that the department received a call at 4:06 p.m. for a fully engulfed garage in the 1800 block of Oliver Street. The fire initially started in the garage as another man was working on a car, Harbin said.
The fire then spread from Turpin’s garage to his house as well as a house to the south of his and three garages because of the wind, Harbin said. Two of the garages were engulfed in flames, and one’s roof collapsed, he said.
The man working on the car was rushed to St. Catherine’s in East Chicago, but Harbin said he was unsure of his condition at the time. Several dogs were also rescued from the blaze, he said; one took off running and got as far as 119th Street before a passerby grabbed its leash.
Otherwise, no other residents or pets were seriously injured, nor were any emergency personnel, he said. Multiple fire departments, including Hammond and East Chicago assisted.
An Indiana State Fire Marshal was on scene, but the investigation is ongoing, Harbin said.
Neighbors didn’t hesitate to offer their homes to Turpin and his family, he said, something for which he was grateful. Whatever the investigation’s result, he hopes to rebuild the home.
“I love this little city by the Lake,” he said.
A boy, 16, said he was at the dentist nearby when he saw black smoke. His mom wondered if something could have happened at the refinery.
“It was big,” he said.
A few houses down from the fire, Debbie Bercik said she had took her dog for a walk when another neighbor came by and said Turpin’s house was on fire. Her home was undamaged.
“The houses are so close, you don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said.
Anthony Novak said his house next door was “pretty bad inside.”
“I saw the neighbor’s garage on fire and like a fool went back with a garden house,” he said.
He called 911 and they told him to let the fire department handle it. His wife was working from home when it started. Everyone — including their three dogs — got out safely.
He estimated the fire spread within five minutes to other structures. Now, their Victorian house was slated to get boarded up.
Oliver Street was once known as “Millionaires Row”, which was home to Standard Oil elites. Novak said they loved the community and would work to bounce back. He had to be grateful it wasn’t worse.
“This has never happened to me,” he said. “What do you do? You just deal with it and move on.”
“If it had to be a bad situation,” Novak said later, “it’s the perfect scenario for a bad situation.”
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
