KSHB 41 reporter Ryan Gamboa covers Miami County in Kansas and Cass County in Missouri. He also covers agricultural topics. Ryan has worked with organizations the Aude's are involved with in the past. His connections in the Miami County community helped him get in touch with the family. They expressed extreme gratitude for those who have helped them out. Share your story idea with Ryan.
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A family of five in Osawatomie, Kansas, is receiving overwhelming community support after losing their home to a kitchen fire on Sunday.
Ben Aude was lucky to make out alive after the Sunday lunch he was cooking sent their house into flames. His wife, Hannah Aude, along with their three children, were on their way home after spending some time with grandma.
A line of colorful wax-like streaks on their refrigerator from melted alphabet magnets symbolizes the memories made in the young couple's first home. It's where their son learned to spell his name.
"Accidents happen, it's life," Hannah Aude said. "Just seeing where our keys would hang, the kid's name on the fridge, it's just memories."
The fire started at the stove and spread rapidly throughout the house.
Ben was making lunch when some grease in a pan on the stove caught fire. He rushed to get the burning pan outside and before he knew it, the back part of their home was in flames.
In a 2025 report from the American Red Cross, cooking fires are the number one cause of house fires and house fire injuries. Fires inside the home are more likely to start in the kitchen than any other room in the house.
Leaving cooking food unattended can often be the cause.
Heating equipment is the second-leading cause of home fires, as nearly half of all American families use alternate heating sources to stay warm. Heating equipment, wood stoves and portable space heaters are blamed for 74% of fire-related deaths.
"It was 90 seconds of 'Wow, this was on fire, to wow my house is on fire,"' Ben Aude said.
The combination of colder and shorter days leads people to spend more time inside their homes and cooking more meals, according to the Red Cross.
There has been an increase in various fire department responses across the metro area over the weekend — including four people hospitalized for carbon monoxide poisoning in Kansas City, Missouri.
The Kansas City, Missouri Fire Department responded to seven different fires overnight on Jan. 22, including one that killed a person inside a Northland home.
"It's crazy," Ben Aude said. "I was doing something I've done 100 times. We’ve had three kids in this house and living here every day, it’s just hard to see, just gone in an instant."
Standing in what's left of their home, the couple reflected on the devastation. Hannah broke down in tears as she surveyed the damage.
"I just see the memories that we built here," Hannah Aude said.
The hardest part for Ben Aude has been not having answers for his children — the five are now staying in a hotel.
"It's hard to look at your kids and say, 'I don't know. I don't know where we're going to live yet. I know you just got this toy for Christmas."' "I don't know yet, man. It's been hard as a dad to look at your kids and not know any of those answers," Ben Aude said.
The first night was particularly difficult when the children asked if they could go home.
The Aude family is deeply involved in their community. Ben serves as a local football coach and Hannah is president of the Paola Chamber of Commerce, works as a banker, and volunteers with the fire department as its administrative asssistant.
Fire Chief Aaron Sharp of the Osawatomie, Kansas Volunteer Fire Department, said Hannah is always the first to help when extra assistance is needed, whether it's administrative duties, organizing fundraisers, or making breakfast for the firefighters.
"If we need anything extra, Hannah is the first one to jump in," Sharp said. "She's as much a part of this department as the guys are holding the ends of those hoses."
Sharp said the department's response to the fire was business as usual until it was extinguished and Hannah was standing on the sidewalk.
It became personal for the entire department.
"Once the fire's out, and you see her standing there on the sidewalk in tears, then it becomes a little more personal at that point," Sharp said. "It is one of your own and you want to be there as best you can. It does affect us."
The family lost everything in the fire, but donations have poured in locally and across the country through social media campaigns. Those include the Miami County Sheriff's Fund, an online meal train fundraiser, and in-person donations of clothes and other household necessities.
The response has been overwhelming as the couple navigates insurance claims and finding temporary housing.
"Between insurance and finding out where we're gonna live, it's just been hard to get to everyone. It's just been overwhelming," Ben Aude said.
For Hannah Aude, who describes herself as a natural giver, accepting help has been challenging, but eye-opening.
"I'm a giver, I truly am a giver. I don't even like accepting birthday gifts," Hannah Aude said. "My love language is giving and receiving is so tough for me, and just seeing the community that is around us every day, giving back to us and communities we aren't even part of, it's just crazy."
The experience has taught her an unexpected lesson about community and reciprocity.
"It's a lesson I didn't think I needed to be taught," Hannah Aude said. "The small impacts that you make on people, the large impacts that they'll make on you."
Ben Aude is using this tragedy as a teaching moment for his children about the importance of being good to others.
"I've been trying to use this as another moment to teach the kids" he said. "This is why you try and be a good person."
The football coach plans to incorporate this experience into future motivational speeches for his players.
"I always try and rally my football players around overcoming adversity, and one day this will be a great story in one of those pregame speeches that they'll get from me," he said. "The time my house burned down, we figured it out and this is what you gotta do as a man."
Sharp believes the community's response reflects Hannah's years of service coming full circle.
"I'm a firm believer in we reap what we sow, and this is just everything coming full circle coming back to here for everything she already does for the community," Sharp said.
The fire chief noted that cooking fires happen year-round, not just in winter, and encouraged people to keep fire extinguishers handy.
Winter weather does add additional challenges for firefighters responding to calls, with icy roads making it dangerous for volunteers to reach the station and get trucks out safely.
For Hannah, the house represented their first major step as a family, but she views this tragedy as another stepping stone in their journey.
"To me, it was a stepping stone," she said. "Everything in life there's a stepping stone. This was our first big step as a family."
If you'd like to help the Aude family during their time of need, you can click here to donate to the Miami County Sheriff's Fund and include "Aude Family" in the notes.
Click here, to donate to the meal train fundraiser.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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