Tuesday Marks Sixth Anniversary of Cross Plains Fire
By: Jessica Reyes
Updated: December 23, 2011
Next Tuesday marks the sixth anniversary of a fire that decimated Cross Plains in 2005.
If you drive through the town, there are no physical reminders of the massive fire. However, residents said the rebuilding process has taken years.
"I would hear a siren and my heart would pound a little bit. Like anybody else in town, it would race a little bit," said Tiffany Bell, who attended Cross Plains High School at the time.
Painful memories from the December 27, 2005 fire still burn in Bell's mind.
"We had to stand on the edge of town and watch the fire basically come through our town and take everything that we knew and loved," she recalled.
Her family's home was spared that day. More than 100 others weren't as lucky.
"I know that my house went. Last time I saw my house was about two o' clock in the afternoon," said Nora Odom, who lost her home to the fire.
Odom got out with only a few precious items.
"Most of my pictures, my home videos. A few clothes. Grabbed a few things as the smoke was coming in, and got in my car and left," she said.
With help from the community, she was able to rebuild. Now six years later, she's finally able to move on.
"I have a new home. Paid it off this last month, merry Christmas to me. Now it's just kind of a memory," she said.
The memory is a painful one for the town's history and its residents.
"I think everybody in Cross Plains now knows the difference between the fire alarm and the ambulance," Bell said.
No official cause of the fire was ever named, but there is speculation that it started from a cigarette that was thrown out of a car on Highway 36.
Two people were killed in the fire. More than 30 fire departments helped get it out.
If you drive through the town, there are no physical reminders of the massive fire. However, residents said the rebuilding process has taken years.
"I would hear a siren and my heart would pound a little bit. Like anybody else in town, it would race a little bit," said Tiffany Bell, who attended Cross Plains High School at the time.
Painful memories from the December 27, 2005 fire still burn in Bell's mind.
"We had to stand on the edge of town and watch the fire basically come through our town and take everything that we knew and loved," she recalled.
Her family's home was spared that day. More than 100 others weren't as lucky.
"I know that my house went. Last time I saw my house was about two o' clock in the afternoon," said Nora Odom, who lost her home to the fire.
Odom got out with only a few precious items.
"Most of my pictures, my home videos. A few clothes. Grabbed a few things as the smoke was coming in, and got in my car and left," she said.
With help from the community, she was able to rebuild. Now six years later, she's finally able to move on.
"I have a new home. Paid it off this last month, merry Christmas to me. Now it's just kind of a memory," she said.
The memory is a painful one for the town's history and its residents.
"I think everybody in Cross Plains now knows the difference between the fire alarm and the ambulance," Bell said.
No official cause of the fire was ever named, but there is speculation that it started from a cigarette that was thrown out of a car on Highway 36.
Two people were killed in the fire. More than 30 fire departments helped get it out.
