Services were held Tuesday for a Flora mother and her two young children who perished in a fire at their home north of Flora Friday night.

The fire claimed the lives of Dr. Brian Wagoner's wife, Leah, 40, and their two children, Harrison, 8, and Sophia, 4. Their lives were celebrated at a service at their church, Faith Baptist, in Lafayette.

Flora Volunteer Fire Chief Scott Sisson said in his 32 years on the department he has never seen a fire go that quickly.

"It happened so fast," he said, "that we could not implement anything quick enough."

Sisson said his department had returned from storm watch detail around 11:15 Friday night. There were still firemen on station when the call came in 15 minutes later. Dispatch said that three people were still inside the building and it was an engulfed structure.

"We had phenomenal response time, three to five minutes," Sisson said, "but the house was already 80% involved when we arrived. It was unbelievable."

Wagoner told firefighters that he awoke to smoke detectors going off. It was extremely hot and there was smoke. He said he tried to wake his wife. There was no electricity and he could not locate a phone. In an effort to figure out how to get his family out of there, he said he opened the front door. It was a metal door and shut behind him. He said when he tried to reopen the door, it was so hot he burned his hands.

"All he could think of was getting help for his family," Sisson said. "Brian gained entry into his garage by breaking a window, then backed his vehicle out through the garage door and headed to his closest neighbor, Jean Callane and Kenny Callane. After calling 911, Wagoner immediately went back to his house and broke windows, yelling for his family in an attempt to get a response."

"Brian was able to tell us exactly how to reach the children and his wife, which saved time," Sisson added.

Firefighters located his daughter in her bedroom, but efforts to revive her were unsuccessful. His son was recovered later in his room upstairs. Mrs. Wagoner was not recovered until morning. She was in the kitchen.

Sisson said had Brian gone back into the residence, there would be four victims instead of three.

"He did the only thing he could and that was to get help for his family," Sisson said. "It was nothing a garden hose was going to fix."

"We can normally knock down a fire under similar circumstances in ten minutes, but this fire took us 35 to 40 minutes."

"There is no average fire," the chief said, "but usually a smoke detector will give you a few minutes head start. This fire was everywhere from the start. You can't be prepared for a catastrophic event like this."

There is a high probability that a lightning strike caused the fire, but that is unofficial, according to Sisson. The fire remains under investigation.

Sisson said he was not aware of any explosion that occurred that night. He speculated that what might have been interpreted as an explosion were windows breaking out or lightning.

"This is the most miserable thing I've ever seen," he said. "It was extra hard because everyone on the department knew this family."

A stress debriefing was held Saturday evening for all firefighters who were involved. That included 22 members of the Flora VFD and firefighters from the other six volunteer departments in the county, numbering another 45 to 50. Also on the scene were Carroll County EMS, Flora Police, Carroll County Sheriff's Department, and Cass County Ambulance Service.

Two firefighters and a police officer were treated for injuries. Wagoner suffered burns and was treated and released from the hospital.

"We're all taking this extremely hard," said Sisson. "We don't like to lose."

"What is so surreal is that this family is the poster child for fire safety," Sisson said. "They had a plan. They had fire drills, Harrison had an escape ladder from his second story bedroom. But this fire was everywhere so fast. There was no time to implement anything. Everything that could go wrong did. Brian did everything he could do."