Kansas

Miami County, Kansas, rallies behind volunteer firefighter after devastating house fire

Published

1 month ago

January 27, 2026

Miami County, Kansas, rallies behind volunteer firefighter after devastating house fire

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.

Miami County, Kansas, rallies behind volunteer firefighter after devastating house fire

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.

Jake Weller/KSHB

Hannah and Ben Aude

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.

Aude Fire — A neighbor bringing some items over to the Aude family during KSHB 41’s interview.

“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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Related Topics:Agriculture cass county Chamber of Commerce electrical fire emergency family Featured fire house fire Kansas City Kitchen Fire

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Kansas

Homegrown Jayhawk stars ready to shine at Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City

Published

13 minutes ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Homegrown Jayhawk stars ready to shine at Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City

LAWRENCE, Kan. (KCTV) – As Kansas women’s basketball prepares to enter the postseason at the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, they’ll be led by two Overland Park natives who have been two of the most electrifying players to watch in the country this year.

Junior guard S’Mya Nichols and freshman forward Jaliya Davis have played integral roles in the recent growth of the program. Both cite the desire to help grow the Jayhawks into something special as reasons for committing there.

“Where we wanted to take Kansas women’s basketball, I wanted to be a part of that growing evolution,” Nichols told KCTV5.

“We [my family] were also really big Jayhawk fans. We came to a lot of games,” Davis said about her childhood.

The two were both 5-star recruits in high school, and their commitments marked historic recruiting victories for the KU women’s basketball program.

First came Nichols in the Class of 2023, picking KU over Tennessee and Oklahoma.

“I genuinely wanted to go to Kansas,” she said.

Then Davis became the highest-rated player to ever commit to KU as part of the Class of 2025.

“When you go back to S’Mya Nichols being a local, Kansas City, Overland Park product, a nationally respected player, Jaliya was really the next one that was very important for the Jayhawks to keep home,” said head coach Brandon Schneider.

Now as a junior, Nichols has established herself as one of the most consistent scorers and physical guards in the nation.

But it’s the Shawnee Mission West’s alum’s leadership that defines her legacy in Lawrence.

“The team leader, the quarterback,” Coach Schneider described Nichols. “I think oftentimes the player that everybody looks up to off the court.”

“I mean it means everything. Knowing that I’m important to the team, and that they see me as that as well,” said Nichols with a smile.

Both Nichols and Davis were recruited by the Jayhawks for years, going all the way back to seventh grade.

“Well, we offered her in middle school,’ Coach Schneider said with a laugh about Davis.

“Oh he put in a lot of work,” laughed Davis. “I mean, obviously, seventh grade, that’s a long time.”

It was that dedication from Coach Schneider that led her to choose the Jayhawks over Texas, South Carolina, Baylor, and Oklahoma – where he dad played ball.

“I think it really was the relationship we had and grew. He was always there, every single one of my games,” Davis said about Schneider.

After just one practice as teammates, Nichols voiced a big belief about Davis into existence – and it’s probably going to come true.

The Jayhawks are the 11-seed in the Big 12 Tournament, and will face 14-seed UCF in the first round on Wednesday at 8:00 p.m.(KCTV5)

“I saw her first practice, and I sent her a text, and I’m like ‘I think you can win Freshman of the Year’, and I still stand by that,”

Davis is averaging 21.0 points per game, and has been named the Big 12 Freshman of the Week for eight weeks in a row. That sets a power conference all-time record.

“I think it’s really cool. I mean obviously it’s a team effort, they’re always looking for me,” Davis said about her historic accomplishment.

“Just a phenomenal stretch of basketball for her, and so well deserving,” said Coach Schneider.

Now these two homegrown stars are at the forefront of a late-season push to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Right now, CBS Sports bracketology has them as a ‘First Four Out’ team.

But a few wins in the Big 12 Tournament could certainly help seal their invite to the big dance.

“Obviously we’re not in the position that we were hoping to be in, but I think we can make the most out of it, and get to where we want to be,” Davis said about the opportunity at hand in the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City.

The Overland Park kids are especially fired up about starting the postseason in their own backyard.

“I have a big support system. So I bet my family will take a big chunk of that area during that tournament,” Davis laughed.

“I remember being younger, and the College Basketball Experience is right next door. So I felt like at one moment that was the big stage, when I got to play my little AAU tournaments in there. And then all of a sudden I’m literally in T-Mobile Center on the actual big stage, so it’s pretty cool,” said Nichols.

The Jayhawks are the 11-seed in the Big 12 Tournament, and will face 14-seed UCF in the first round on Wednesday at 8:00 p.m.

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Kansas

Why Matthew Driscoll continues to say Kansas State is ‘close’

Published

1 day ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Why Matthew Driscoll continues to say Kansas State is ‘close’

MANHATTAN — David Castillo sank his free throw to finish off a three-point play to cut TCU’s lead to two late in the second half. Kansas State had a chance to play spoiler to a team that was on the NCAA Tournament bubble.

For the previous 36 minutes, the Wildcats were more engaged than they had been all season. You wouldn’t have recognized they were just under two weeks removed from their head coach getting fired. The Wildcats were in the middle of a competitive basketball game when there haven’t been many this season.

And then the final four minutes happened, and the Wildcats lost once again.

Kansas State pulled within one score six different times in the second half against the Horned Frogs, only to never take a lead, and then go 4 minutes, 4 seconds without a point after Castillo’s late bucket, leading to a 77-68 loss.

K-State interim coach Matthew Driscoll compared the loss to a broken record, when the Wildcats have been close late, only to fall apart in the end.

“We get there, and then, for whatever reason, we can’t break through,” Driscoll said. “When we got it to a one-point game, I thought that this was when we were going to turn the corner. It just seems like we keep getting close, and we can’t break through that wall.”

Kansas State (11-18, 2-14 Big 12) has been within striking distance in a handful of games this season, only to go on lengthy scoring droughts and come up short in the end.

While there are plenty of games in which the Wildcats were blown out or didn’t show half the effort they showed against the Horned Frogs, there have been enough games that if the Wildcats finished, they wouldn’t be fighting to not finish at the bottom of the Big 12 standings.

K-State’s Feb. 25 loss to Colorado is another example, having two five-plus-minute spurts in which it didn’t score a point. The Wildcats held late leads against West Virginia and Oklahoma State, and in their first game against TCU, only to choke away those leads.

“There’s a lot of frustration,” Khamari McGriff said. “It’s been a fight to continue to focus on the next right thing and let whatever has happened in the past, and just try to get to a point where we can compete for 40 minutes. We gotta look at it with the perspective that we’ve been close a lot of times, and we just gotta figure out how to take that next step.”

Kansas State is running out of opportunities to achieve that “next step.” The Wildcats have a home game on Tuesday, March 3, against a beatable West Virginia team before closing the regular season at Kansas on March 7. After that, it would be surprising if the Wildcats get more than two games at the Big 12 Tournament.

But Driscoll hasn’t seen his team quit, which is almost all he can ask for after what has been a season to forget.

“We just haven’t completed the deal,” Driscoll said.

Wyatt D. Wheeler covers Kansas State athletics for the USA TODAY Network and Topeka Capital-Journal. You can follow him on X at @WyattWheeler_, contact him at 417-371-6987 or email him at wwheeler@usatodayco.com

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Kansas

Kansas Highway Patrol reports five-vehicle crash in Johnson Co. Friday

Published

2 days ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Kansas Highway Patrol reports five-vehicle crash in Johnson Co. Friday

JOHNSON COUNTY, Kan. (WIBW) – Multiple people were involved in a five-vehicle crash Friday in Johnson County.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol Crash Log, the crash occurred around 4:55 p.m. on Interstate 35.

Five vehicles: a 2021 Toyota Tacoma, a 2010 Toyota Sienna, a 2014 Honda Pilot, a 2017 Chevrolet Malibu, and a 2018 Ford Mustang, were all traveling northbound on the I-35 long ramp to 75th Street.

The 2021 Toyota Tacoma exited the roadway to the right and struck the rear of the 2010 Toyota Sienna.

The 2021 Toyota Tacoma then continued northbound and struck the 2024 Honda Pilot.

The Honda Pilot was pushed and struck the rear of the 2017 Chevrolet Malibu, which then lost control and struck the 2018 Ford Mustang. The Chevrolet Malibu then struck the barrier wall.

There were no serious injuries reported in the incident.

The driver of the Toyota Tacoma, a 28-year-old male of Kansas City, Kan., was taken to a hospital with a possible injury. He was wearing a safety restraint.

The Toyota Sienna driver, a 23-year-old female, of Merriam, Kan., had no apparent injuries and was wearing a safety restraint.

The Honda Pilot driver, a 75-year-old male of Lenexa, Kan., had no apparent injuries and was wearing a safety restraint.

The driver of the Chevrolet Malibu, a 31-year-old female of Kansas City, Kan., had no apparent injuries and was wearing a safety restraint.

The 2018 Ford Mustang held two occupants. The driver, a 19-year-old male of Garden Plain, Kan., had no apparent injuries and was wearing a safety restraint.

The other occupant in the vehicle was an 18-year-old female of Goddard, Kan. She did not have any apparent injuries and was wearing a safety restraint.

View the full Kansas Highway Patrol Crash log on this incident here.

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