6/19/2005 12:37:00 PM Fire causes major damage to Fair cabin
Fire swept through a three-story cabin at the Neshoba County Fairgrounds on Sunday about 11 a.m.
Volunteer firefighters contained the fire at the newly constructed three story Cabin 124 owned by Tom Wallace Cox. No one was in the cabin at the time of the blaze.
The cabin received major damage. No injuries were reported and no other cabins were affected.
Flames and smoke were initially reported coming out of the third floor windows. Witnesses said firefighters responded very quickly, throwing burned mattresses and box springs off the third-floor porch. Members of the Cox family arrived shortly after firefighters.
Terri Cox McCarver said the cabin had just been completed and the family planned to spend the Fourth of July weekend there.
There were several people on the fairgrounds at the time of the fire with one man commenting that it was a tragedy averted.
Mrs. Norman A. Johnson Jr., whose husband was president of the Fair board for over 20 years, said she had never known of a major structural fire there in her 60 plus years of attendance.
The cabin belongs also to Frances Cumberland in Jackson and Kipps Webb of SouthHaven.
The Tom Wallace Cox family would like to thank the numerous people who helped alert the fire departments regarding the fire at our cabin today.
The 4 fire deparments- Dixon, Linwood, Hope, and Fairview were very professional and without their expediate reaction to the call the entire row of cabins could have possibly been destroyed. This was a tragedy but could have been worse if our family would have been in it. Lives could have been easily lost. You can always replace buildings but not lives. Again, thank you to the many fire volunteers!
