After a fire on Buffalo Island
Twenty-nine miles is a long way from Jonesboro when something is burning. Caraway's own department at 304 East State Street carries the first part of any incident here, and mutual aid arrives from Lake City or Monette rather than from a metropolitan system with seven stations behind it.
Speak to a dispatcher now and to the crew that is actually coming shortly after.
The coverage sheet lists these ZIP codes for fire damage and nothing else. A water loss here needs a contractor found some other way.
What distance does to the damage
None of this reflects on the department. It is geography. A fire that has run a few extra minutes has usually moved past the room of origin, and the first place it goes is the space above the ceiling, where it can travel the length of a house unseen.
For restoration that changes the opening question from what will clean to what will hold. Framing that has lost section comes out. Framing that is surface-charred is usually cleaned and sealed. That decision is made by measuring sound wood, and it is made before anybody talks about paint.
- You callOne number per county. The dispatcher takes the address, the ZIP and a short description of what happened.
- A local crew calls backAn independent restoration contractor already working that county rings you directly and sets a time.
- They look, then scope itNothing is priced from a phone call. The crew walks the building, takes readings, and writes a scope you can hand to your adjuster.
The ZIP codes on this page
72419
If your ZIP is on this list, the call routes. If it is not, say so and the dispatcher will tell you straight away.
Storefronts, party walls and shared attics
Caraway grew along a rail spur rather than around a square, and its commercial buildings sit shoulder to shoulder. A fire in one of them is rarely a problem for one owner. Heat and smoke pass through party walls at penetrations and above the ceiling line, and the building two doors down often has residue in it before anyone thought to look.
The town has been here before in a different form. The October 31, 2013 tornado damaged about fifty buildings and put several businesses out of operation, and the commercial losses took the longest to work through. A fire on the same block raises the same question of whether a business can operate while its building is being restored, which is usually the question the owner cares about most.
Local background
- Caraway grew out of Chicago Mill and Lumber Company timber operations moved out on a BL&AS railroad spur to Blytheville; after the timber was cut, rich alluvial farmland attracted permanent settlement, and early industries included a stave mill and a 1920s ice company.
- A tornado on October 31, 2013 damaged about fifty buildings in Caraway and put several businesses out of operation.
- Caraway Fire Department, a municipal department, is headquartered at 304 East State Street.
The road out and the road in
AR-135 runs through town with a concurrency on AR-158, and AR-139 starts here and heads thirteen miles north to Monette. The route to Jonesboro is AR-135 north to Lake City, then AR-18 west. A crew coming from the county's western half is planning around that drive, and so is the equipment they choose to bring on the first trip.
The practical version for a homeowner: expect a scheduled visit rather than an immediate one, and expect the first visit to be about stabilizing and documenting rather than about finishing.
Coverage in this county
Craighead County appears on this site with one vertical. Fire damage is covered; water damage is not, in Caraway or anywhere else in the county. A page that let a reader assume otherwise would be wasting their time on the worst possible day to waste it.
Common questions
Who responds to a fire in Caraway?
Caraway Fire Department, a municipal department at 304 East State Street. It is one of five municipal or paid departments in Craighead County, the others being Jonesboro, Bay, Lake City and Monette.
My neighbor's building burned and mine did not. Do I have a problem?
Possibly, especially in an attached commercial row. Check the shared wall, the attic space above your ceiling and any penetration between the two structures. Smoke residue in an unburned building is common and is a documentable loss.
Is a published ISO rating available for the Caraway department?
Not one we could find on an open source. Jonesboro's Class 1 rating from December 2015 is the only rating documented for any department in this county, and this site does not guess at the others.
Can a business stay open during restoration?
Sometimes, if the damage can be isolated and the affected area sealed off. It depends on where the residue went, whether the mechanical system is shared, and what the structure needs. That assessment happens on the first visit.
Neighboring towns
Photograph what you can, move what is loose, and call the county number.