Residents of the Wood Court trailer park off Krausetown Road awoke early Tuesday to the sound of two explosions.

DEPUTY MARK PILES arrests Gerald B. Novak on Tues­­day at the scene of a fire which destroyed a mobile home where Novak was living. Novak was wanted on an outstanding felony arrest warrant.

A DOORWAY is all that remained standing at Novak’s trailer.

On fire was a rental trailer at the bottom of the park. Diving out the window was its occupant, Gerald Bernard Novak, 50, of Owensville. He would be arrested later that morning on an outstanding felony arrest warrant alleging drug possession. Deputies found him hiding in the trailer across the gravel road from where his destroyed dwelling once stood.

“There were two explosions. That’s what woke me up,” said Sheryl Edberg whose mobile home next door was heavily damaged by fire, reported at around 4 a.m., and intense heat. Nearby, several trees still smoldered where they had been burned 20 feet up from the ground.

“The neighbors heard two explosions and one of the residents saw him (Novak) dive out of a window and he was on fire when he dove out,” said Chief Deputy Major Paul Owensby of the Gasconade County Sheriff’s Department. “An item of evidence was seized there and may indicate meth was being cooked there.”

Novak was transported by a deputy for treatment of lacerations and burns at Hermann Area District Hospital prior to being taken to the jail in Montgomery City.

Novak was jailed on a prior arrest warrant requiring a $20,000 cash or surety bond for a Class “C” felony alleging possession of a controlled substance. He is also charged with misdemeanor unlawful use of drug paraphernalia with a $1,000 cash or surety bond required. Deputies found Novak hiding under a desk in the mobile home across the street from his, neighbors said.

Edberg said moments after she was awoken by the two explosions, she saw Novak dive out of a window. He then began unhooking a small propane tank from beside his mobile home and tossed it beside her trailer. The two trailers sit approximately 20 feet apart and Edberg’s residence sustained extensive damage from the intense heat and fire. Several of her windows were broken out and sheet metal from her residence was charred or burned back to raw, shiny metal.

Several sections of sheet metal were pealed back to expose insulation where fire had started to burn through. She said she was shocked by some wiring leading to the bathroom. The insulation surrounding the wire had melted from the heat.

Owensville firemen had their own nightmare to deal with during the incident.

“We got the (crap) kicked out of us this morning,” said First Assistant Chief Jeff Kuhne.

Kuhne said their initial attack of the fire was made by a crew manning a pumper truck which drove down the hill into the park and set up near the trailer. Another rig was parked two-thirds of the way up the hill and its crew began setting up a portable metal-framed pond from which water could be off-loaded and transferred through a pumper to additional hose lines.

Firefighter Jeff Limberg was in the process of priming the pump to create a draft from the portable pond when truck No. 171 began rolling forward. The rig struck Limberg and knocked him into the pond. It continued downhill and demolished the pond structure. Twisted remains of the structure were still evident at the scene at mid-morning.

“Jeff was bringing the truck up to speed. The truck lurched forward and threw him into the pond,” said Kuhne. “The truck continued forward into a soft area.”

Kuhne said their initial debriefing indicated another firemen jumped into the truck in an attempt to get it stopped and was able to do so as the truck rolled into some rain-saturated ground off the roadway. Limberg suffered a left-shoulder injury and was treated at the scene by Owensville Area Ambulance District personnel. He later sought additional medical treatment on his own.

“Luckily it was nothing serious,” said Kuhne. “It completely demolished the pond. The main thing is Jeff is alright. It was a pretty scary situation there for a while.”

Limberg was resting at home with his arm in a sling. He suffered bruises and a strained shoulder in the incident.

After firemen began their initial attack, neighbors said all of a sudden a torrent of water began flowing down the gravel drive and firemen working down below began running up the hill to where the other crew was located. Kuhne said the crew on truck No. 164 was using its deck gun to keep fire off the neighboring mobile homes when the incident occurred up the hill.

“They had been using a lot of water and we were setting up supply lines and starting a tanker shuttle with the pond,” said Kuhne. “Jeff was priming the pump and preparing to draw water out of the pond when the truck rolled.”

Kuhne said wheel chocks had been set in place to keep the rig from moving. The truck was being examined by mechanics to determine if there was a problem with the braking system. Firemen were on the scene until after daybreak.

An intake fitting on the truck at the bottom of the hill was broken at the threads where a hose attached to the truck had pulled away and stripped the threads. Several sections of supply hose were also ruined. Truck 171 is described as a “front line pumper” which is housed out of Station No. 3 in Owensville.

“It all worked out,” said Kuhne. “Jeff got a little banged up but he’ll be alright.”

Kuhne said the trailer’s occupant did not have renter’s insurance and apparently the dwelling’s owner did not have insurance on it either. Therefore, he said, the Missouri State Fire Marshal’s Office was not called to investigate. Kuhne said he was unable to comment if any evidence possibly related to methamphetamine manufacturing was located, or recovered, at the scene.

“From what all the neighbors told me, they’ve (the sheriff’s department) been looking for him,”  said Kuhne.