| 113th Year, 17th Issue | Thursday, December 6, 2001 | Sparta, North Carolina |
More than 40 fire and emergency personnel battled a late-night fire last week which totally destroyed a decades-old Alleghany landmark.
The house on U.S. 21 north across from the Alleghany County Fairgrounds is owned by Billy Maxwell, who also owns the nearby Maxwell Museum. No one was living in the house, and there were no injuries caused to emergency personnel in battling the fire, said Terry McGrady, chief of the Sparta-Alleghany Volunteer Fire Department.
McGrady said the fire started at about midnight Nov. 28 and fire fighters were on the scene for five-and-a-half hours during the early morning of Nov. 29. The house was fully engulfed in flames when firemen arrived, he said, and some of the walls had already fallen in.
As to how the fire started, "We're not plum sure at this time. It's undecided," he said. The house was at least 75 years old. "It's hard to come up with what did start it when it's burnt that bad."
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