Firefighters battle a blaze at 18400 S.E. Skaggs Road in Dearborn, Mo., on Monday. The fire left a family of six without a home.

DEARBORN, Mo. — A fire upset a family’s plans Monday for enjoying their newly remodeled home.

Christian and Molly Tanner had driven up the road Monday for a quick trip to the South Belt Wal-Mart. Returning home wasn’t what they’d planned.

Wisps of smoke appeared to be coming from the one-story house at 18400 S.E. Skaggs Road as the couple turned off Missouri Highway 371 shortly after 11 a.m.

“I couldn’t be sure because there were no flames,” Mrs. Tanner said, “but when he opened the back door, smoke rolled out and we called 911.”

The Dearborn Area Fire Protection District had the first trucks on the scene, even though it took them a little longer than usual to get there. The Missouri Department of Transportation closed the Dearborn overpass above Interstate 29 for a deck replacement, so the firetrucks had to go north to the next overpass before they could go south and turn west.

Arriving on the scene, the first company activated a mutual aid request that brought Camden Point, Edgerton-Trimble, South Central Buchanan and West Platte Fire Protection districts to the scene with about 12 companies of firefighters. Crews had two trucks on Skaggs Road and a portable 2,500-gallon water reservoir. Nine pumper and tanker trucks ran back and forth to Faucett, Mo. to keep the reservoir filled.

One truck parked on Skaggs Road pumped water from the reservoir to the other truck, which pumped the water onto the burning house, said Brad Ebling, a South Central Buchanan fireman from Faucett.

All that’s going to be saved is the garage, Mrs. Tanner said. Gone was the new enclosed porch, the new flat-screen television, two rolls of new carpet and a large stack of new wood flooring, plus the old chair that Mrs. Tanner loved as well as most of the family’s possessions.

Mr. Tanner is a registered nurse who works as part of an ambulance first responder team for Heartland Health System. Two of the Tanner’s children were in school and two were staying at a neighbor’s home. The family lived on Skaggs Road for about four years.

The Midland Empire Chapter of the American Red Cross will provide emergency assistance.