Tuesday morning fires destroy Yeller Hawk Wrecker, vacant Calhoun homes

A Magnolia Police unit sits at the scene of an early morning Tuesday fire that destroyed Yeller Hawk Wrecker Service at 414 W. Union Street in Magnolia.
A Magnolia Police unit sits at the scene of an early morning Tuesday fire that destroyed Yeller Hawk Wrecker Service at 414 W. Union Street in Magnolia.

Local firemen early Tuesday morning worked triple duty as they contended with three property fires at virtually the same time in two separate Magnolia locations. In total, two vacant homes near the corner intersection of Calhoun Rd. and U.S. Hwy. 79 South, as well as a Union Street auto and wrecker business were destroyed.

No one was injured in any of the incidents, according to the Magnolia Fire Department.

The first call to MFD came at 3:38 a.m. Tuesday, when flames were reported at a 1322 Calhoun Rd. home. When firefighters arrived, they also found that the adjacent residential property at 1318 Calhoun Rd. was ablaze.

After there only a few minutes, and while still contending with the home fires, the department at 3:46 a.m. received a separate report of a fire at 414 W. Union Street — the address of Yeller Hawk Wrecker Service. The auto property is located just blocks away from Magnolia’s square and only feet from KZHE’s broadcast home next door. According to the radio station, no damage was incurred at its Union Street Station studios.

MFD contended with the Yeller Hawk incident until the flames were extinguished. Firefighters left the scene at 6:20 a.m., then proceeded to clear and clean the firetruck units for an additional hour.

According to Columbia County real estate records, the 1322 Calhoun Rd. home was a 1,338 square-foot, wood-sided home built in 1940. The property was valued, as of 2018, at $10,750. Its owner is listed as V. Threadgill et al.

It is unknown when the former 1,020 square-foot home at 1318 Calhoun Rd. was built. Its owner is listed as L. Ellis et al and had a total value of $5,700.

Yeller Hawk’s owner since 2002 is listed as RAPCO, Inc., according to county records. The wrecker service and garage is operated by Darrell L. Watson. The building is 7,200 square feet and had a 2018 “taxable value” of $159,600.

The wrecker service property and both vacant Calhoun Rd. homes were total losses. All three incidents Tuesday morning were blocked off by police scene tape. The W. Union Street incident is currently under investigation by MFD, as well as the Magnolia Police Department.

Pictured are the remnants of a vacant home at 1322 Calhoun Rd. that was claimed by fires in a separate, yet nearly simultaneous Tuesday morning blaze.
Pictured are the remnants of a vacant home at 1322 Calhoun Rd. that was claimed by fires in a separate, yet nearly simultaneous Tuesday morning blaze.

Only scatters of brick and some metal home components were left standing at the Calhoun properties at around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. Small ground fires still burned and plumes of smoke could be seen by Hwy. 79 by passersby. Centerpoint Energy trucks and personnel were also on the scene during the daylight hours as they worked with a equipment and a backhoe around a natural gas line at the Calhoun lots. When asked the condition of the site, workers gave a “thumbs-up” to acknowledge their work was proceeding positively.

Tuesday’s fires at Calhoun Rd. were the second in as many months to claim an abandoned, ramshackle home in the immediate vicinity of lots nearest to the corner intersection of U.S. Hwy. 79. On December 20, an early morning fire also brought a vacant home near 1326 Clifton Street to ash. The house sat immediately north of the Calhoun homes, at the small street’s dead end, and butted almost directly to the 1318 and 1322 Calhoun addresses.

The metal Yeller Hawk building was still mostly upright Tuesday, but the interior was completely blackened by the fire damage and stood as a burned out shell of the former business that operated there nearly 20 years.

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