A midday fire that started in the kitchen resulted in a totalloss for a Lake Lincoln Road family Thursday after a delayedresponse time from county volunteer fire departments.

Fire department officials said the initial call to 2377 LakeLincoln Road went out at 2:56 p.m., but after three departmentswere paged and no responders were immediately available, finallythe fourth department arrived on scene at 3:23 p.m. The grease firequickly spread to the entire structure, bystanders said.

Hog Chain Fire Department Capt. Chris Reid, the firstfirefighter on scene, said the home was fully involved when hearrived.

“At that point, our objective was to contain and extinguish thefire and prevent it from spreading to the exterior structures,” hesaid. “There was a trailer, a shed and a propane tank in theimmediate vicinity.”

The home belonged to Karen Coker, the wife of late District TwoSupervisor Frank Coker, who also served as Wesson police chief. Shesaid she was grateful for the fire units that were able to respond,but that her daughter and son-in-law who inhabited the house hadtaken a great loss.

“They’ve lost everything,” she said.

Hog Chain Chief John Hart said his firefighters were on standby,ready to bring the truck as soon as they were called after hearingthe other departments slim response in the middle of the day. Hesaid the problem was one that could happen to almost any departmentdepending on the time.

“Volunteer firefighters have jobs, and there are a lot who can’tleave work to go to a call in the middle of the day,” he said.”Daytime coverage is hard to get sometimes because people justcan’t get off work.”

Several firefighters from Hog Chain and Wesson fire departmentstook the brunt of the battle, as well as two from Zetus, and oneeach from Loyd Star and Heuck’s Retreat. They battled the blaze,finally leaving the scene around 6 p.m.

Reid said it’s always tragic when a family loses their home.

“It’s got all your memories, all your possessions – it’s yourhome,” he said. “I just hate it for these people.”