Zavalla-area couple returns home after husband's triple-bypass surgery, only to see home burn down

ZAVALLA — A Zavalla-area couple lost all their possessions in a mid-morning house fire Tuesday that destroyed their retirement home near Monterey Park on Lake Sam Rayburn.

Ken Townsend, who just Monday had gotten out of the hospital following triple-bypass surgery, was outside in his yard resting in a swing when he said he looked back at his house and saw flames shooting out. His wife, Mary, had gone to Huntington earlier in the day, so Ken — still tender with staples in his chest from the recent surgery — went next door to his son and daughter-in-law's home to alert emergency responders.

Gary Willmon / The Lufkin Daily News (enlarge photo) Firefighters hose down the smoldering remains of a house that was destroyed in a Tuesday morning fire near Lake Sam Rayburn on Popher Creek Road. Homeowners Ken and Mary Townsend were not injured. Five volunteer fire departments were called to help fight the blaze.

"It was all he could do to drag himself up on our front porch and let us know the house was on fire," said daughter-in-law Rebecca Townsend, who immediately called 911.

Firefighting units from five area volunteer fire departments responded to the blaze on Popher Creek Road, only a stone's throw from Monterey Park on Lake Sam Rayburn just north of Zavalla. Emergency personnel acted quickly to keep the fire from spreading to several nearby houses, as the lake-area village is made up of numerous homes and cottages in close proximity to each other along Popher Creek Road.

Both Ken and Mary Townsend are in their mid-60s, their daughter-in-law said, and had worked hard to have a nice place to live in their retirement.

"Thankfully it was just the house. Everyone is out," she said. "Even their three dogs made it out safely."

Rebecca Townsend said her in-laws' home was insured. "It's just that everything has happened at once — first his surgery, and now this," she said.

In a separate fire that occurred Tuesday, Rivercrest/Redland volunteer firefighters were kept busy with a blaze that broke out at a house on FM 2021 that had already burned a month earlier.

According to E.R. Brooks of the Rivercrest/Redland Volunteer Fire Department, the house had burned about a month ago and was gutted on the inside.

"Apparently someone was doing cleanup work there and something caught fire," Brooks said. "What was left of the house from the previous fire was burned up this time."