Kansas
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
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.”
Jake Weller/KSHB
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.
Jake Weller/KSHB
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.
Jake Weller/KSHB
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.
Jake Weller/KSHB
“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.
Jake Weller/KSHB
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.
Jake Weller/KSHB
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.
Jake Weller/KSHB
“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.
Jake Weller/KSHB
“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.
Jake Weller/KSHB
“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.”
Jake Weller/KSHB
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.”
Jake Weller/KSHB
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.
Jake Weller/KSHB
“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.
Jake Weller/KSHB
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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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) — It’s been a week since the World Cup began in Kansas City, but some local businesses aren’t feeling the expected influx in traffic and are asking for support.
On Thursday, KC2026 provided numbers for the FIFA Fan Festival and the ConnectKC26 transportation system.
From June 11 to June 16, KC2026 said more than 63,000 people attended the FIFA Fan Festival.
There are mixed results for where everyone is from:
- 52% from Kansas or Missouri
- 33% from the United States
- 15% from out of the country
As of 2 p.m. on June 17, ConnectKC26 has a total of 86,540 registered passes.
Breakdown of routes from KC2026:
- Stadium Direct: 57,302
- Regional Direct: 17,284
- Airport Direct: 11,954
As for business traffic, it depends on where you look. Some businesses in the Country Club Plaza said they’ve seen an uptick, especially on the first match day.
“We just had a really fun time with all of the fans, and I think we did a good job preparing for it,” said KC Style Haus Owner, Deserae Minor.
But many businesses are sharing their disappointment online.
‘Ghost town’
Caitlin Benedict, who owns Bisou, a European-style coffee and pastry shop, took to Instagram after shopping at a Crossroads night market.
“We are all in this together, it sucks. It was dead. It’s been dead everywhere,” said Bisou Owner, Caitlin Benedict.
After sharing her disappointment online, she saw an uptick in business on Thursday.
“It’s nice when the community can help out, and you can back up your own hometown at the same time,” said Janet Garciga, who drove in from Lee’s Summit to visit Bisou.
“I don’t want them to just come to Bisou, and I don’t want it to just be for a day. I want them to go everywhere else, and I want them to support everyone else, and consistently, especially for the next month and a half while FIFA is here,” said Benedict.
She heard from businesses experiencing the same issues in Mission, other spots downtown, Kansas City, Kansas, and Overland Park.
Down the road in the Crossroads, Buffalo State Pizza saw fans for the French match on Tuesday.
“But after that, I mean, we even close early on Tuesday because that was, it was dead,” said Buffalo State Pizza Owner, Phillippe Lechevin.
Shopping bags and matchas aren’t filling up at Dear Society either.
“The 10 years that I’ve been here in Kansas City. I have seen a lot of these big events coming into town, and we’ve been told to prepare and get ready for these huge crowds. And to be honest, after the NFL draft and after so many things that I’ve seen in 10 years, I didn’t do anything different,” said Dear Society Owner, Chanel Jezek. “I kind of knew. I had a feeling like we weren’t going to be as busy as they were projecting because they’ve done this to us before.”
Multiple factors = slow traffic
All three, Bisou, Buffalo State Pizza, and Dear Society, said there isn’t really someone to blame, but rather multiple factors that could be part of the issues.
A lot of eateries in town added a 20% automatic gratuity to bills, Bisou and Buffalo State Pizza decided not to take part, but worry that it is keeping locals away.
Visit KC projected 650,000 visitors throughout the entire tournament, and these businesses wonder if the possibility of large crowds and no parking is also keeping residents at home.
“I think we lost a lot of the regular ones. You know, the number was shown earlier back in February, you know, the 600,000 people. People who have the option to work from home, but maybe they didn’t want to deal with the traffic, since there’s no traffic. So hopefully they’re going to come back,” said Lechevin. “People may realize, actually, you know, it’s not as crazy as it is. I can still park in my regular spot and have lunch at my regular spot without being, you know, charged an extra amount.”
Jezek said she’d love to see KC2026 and FIFA add more locally owned businesses on their website so fans know where to find them.
“We are not seeing an increase in traffic on the streets. We are not crowded like they were predicting. You can still come in. You can still support your local businesses, your favorite coffee shops, your favorite places to grab your gifts, or whatever. We’re here. We’re slow. And there are more places to park,” said Jezek.
Benedict said it is an honor to have the World Cup here, but wants to see more honesty and support from leaders.
“I feel like it’s good for our city. It’s recognition. But at the same time, I want leadership to step in and say, okay, we didn’t get as many travelers as we should have,” said Benedict.
These businesses are hopeful that fans, locals, and other owners all come out and support these small shops throughout the metro during the World Cup and beyond.
“I would say just keep coming and supporting us and showing up,” said Jezek.
KCTV5 reached out to Visit KC, but did not have any numbers it could share at this time.
Mayor Quinton Lucas’ office shared the statement below after this story aired on Thursday:
“While the economic impact of a global event of this magnitude will naturally vary by business and by neighborhood, Mayor Lucas is encouraged by what he is hearing from Kansas City’s entertainment and hospitality sectors. Hotels, bars, and restaurants reported strong activity as Kansas City welcomed tens of thousands of guests for the opening match. As we look toward this weekend’s games and the remainder of the tournament, we’ll continue to highlight opportunities for our visitors and residents alike to join in the fun and celebration of this one in a generation moment.”
Businesses are hopeful that the longer the World Cup goes on, the more people will show up. KCTV5 plans to check in with these businesses throughout the tournament to see if traffic picks up.
Copyright 2026 KCTV. All rights reserved.
Cooler temperatures today, but we will keep a chance of thunderstorms going in south-central Kansas this morning. One or two could be strong.
Temperatures stay cooler in southern Kansas thanks to clouds and rain in the area. Warmer temps and sunshine to the north.
Another chance of severe weather will visit Kansas this weekend, with a complex of strong storms rolling across the area Saturday night.
KSN Storm Track 3 Forecast from Meteorologist Jack Maney:
Wichita:
Today: Mostly cloudy. 60% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 80 Wind: NE 8-18
Tonight: Mostly to partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers. Lo: 62 Wind: NE/E 5-15
Tomorrow: Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 85 Wind: E/SE 5-15
Tomorrow Night: Partly to mostly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms. Lo: 68 Wind: SE 5-15
Wichita Weekly
Sat: Hi: 87 Lo: 73 Partly to mostly cloudy. 50% chance of showers and storms.
Sun: Hi: 92 Lo: 67 Mostly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms.
Mon: Hi: 82 Lo: 65 Partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms.
Tue: Hi: 84 Lo: 66 Partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms.
Wed: Hi: 86 Lo: 68 Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms.
Thu: Hi: 88 Lo: 69 Partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms.
SOUTHWEST: Dodge City, Garden City, Liberal, Greensburg, Guymon
Southwest:
Today: Partly to mostly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 84 Wind: NE/E 10-25
Tonight: Mostly to partly cloudy. Lo: 58 Wind: E/SE 5-15
Tomorrow: Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 85 Wind: SE 8-18
Tomorrow Night: Partly to mostly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms. Lo: 62 Wind: SE 5-15
Southwest Weekly
Sat: Hi: 92 Lo: 66 Mostly cloudy. 40% chance of showers and storms.
Sun: Hi: 91 Lo: 59 Mostly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms.
Mon: Hi: 82 Lo: 58 Mostly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms.
Tue: Hi: 83 Lo: 60 Mostly to partly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms.
Wed: Hi: 85 Lo: 61 Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms.
Thu: Hi: 89 Lo: 62 Partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms.
NORTHWEST: Colby, Goodland, Hill City, Oberlin, McCook
Northwest:
Today: Partly cloudy to mostly sunny. Hi: 86 Wind: NE/E 5-15
Tonight: Mostly clear to partly cloudy. Lo: 61 Wind: E/S 5-15
Tomorrow: Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 86 Wind: S/SE 8-18
Tomorrow Night: Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms. Lo: 61 Wind: SE 5-15
Northwest Weekly
Sat: Hi: 90 Lo: 61 Partly to mostly cloudy. 50% chance of showers and storms.
Sun: Hi: 84 Lo: 55 Mostly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms.
Mon: Hi: 78 Lo: 56 Mostly to partly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms.
Tue: Hi: 82 Lo: 58 Partly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms.
Wed: Hi: 85 Lo: 59 Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms.
Thu: Hi: 87 Lo: 60 Partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms.
NORTHCENTRAL: Salina, Great Bend, Hays, Russell, Beloit, Osborne
North Central:
Today: Mostly to partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 83 Wind: NE 8-18
Tonight: Partly cloudy. Lo: 60 Wind: NE/SE 5-15
Tomorrow: Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 86 Wind: SE 8-18
Tomorrow Night: Partly to mostly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms. Lo: 66 Wind: SE 5-15
North Central Weekly
Sat: Hi: 88 Lo: 70 Partly to mostly cloudy. 70% chance of showers and storms.
Sun: Hi: 88 Lo: 63 Mostly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms.
Mon: Hi: 81 Lo: 62 Mostly to partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms.
Tue: Hi: 84 Lo: 64 Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms.
Wed: Hi: 86 Lo: 66 Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms.
Thu: Hi: 88 Lo: 67 Partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms.
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — A Kansas fire department is asking people to be more careful about what they throw away.
The Mulvane Fire Department was called to a vehicle fire Wednesday afternoon. The driver of a trash truck had smelled something burning and pulled over to call 911.
When firefighters arrived, they found smoke coming from the back of the truck. In the trash bay, a firefighter discovered a discarded laptop computer with a lithium battery that was heating up.
The department said it was able to remove the battery from the truck and flood the truck with water to cool off the trash. This is the second incident involving a lithium battery crews have responded to this month, according to Mulvane Fire.
Lithium is highly reactive, and when batteries are damaged, they can heat up uncontrollably. The reaction cascades, with the battery getting hotter and hotter until all of the lithium is consumed. In some cases, when exposed to oxygen, lithium can ignite instantly.
The fire department is urging residents to never throw computers or anything with batteries in the trash. Sedgwick County offers this free recycling guide with information on how to properly dispose of a wide variety of household goods and chemicals.
For more Kansas news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news by downloading our mobile app and signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track 3 Weather app by clicking here. To watch our shows live on our website, click here.
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