Fires cause substantial damage to local homes

Fires caused substantial damage to two homes in different parts of the county last week.

While apparently unrelated, both flare-ups — the first in Ennice, the second in Whitehead — occurred within a 24-hour period. In each case, firefighters were able to respond and contain the blaze quickly, and most of the damage was limited to one portion of the building. No person was injured in either incident.

Lazy Branch Road

The call for the Ennice fire, at a house trailer on Lazy Branch Road, came about 11:45 a.m. Sept. 3.

Most of the damage was to a bedroom at one of the residence owned by Joe and Jackie Perry, said Chief David Higgins of the Glade Creek Volunteer Fire Department. The fire destroyed one wall but otherwise did not leave the bedroom, Higgins said.

The rest of the trailer had a little smoke damage. “We’re guessing electrical, but we don’t really know how it started,” he said. It began beside a sink.

He estimated structural damage at $8,000, with about $20,000 in damage to the contents, which included a computer and other electronic equipment.

The trailer was only about three and one-half years old, Higgins remarked.

Kenneth Nichols, who operates a private garbage service, noticed the fire while in the area and reported it, said Higgins. “That was luck there. If Kenneth Nichols hadn’t seen it, it (the trailer) would have been gone.”

No human beings were at home at the time of the fire, Higgins said. However, two pets were in the residence.

In the photo above right, smoke from an attic fire billows out of a residence on Holbrook Way in the Whitehead area. Firefighters from Sparta and Cherry Lane responded quickly to the Sept. 4 morning blaze and kept it contained to one portion of the attic.

At left, Glade Creek firemen remove damaged material from one end of a house trailer on Lazy Branch Road in Ennice. Structural damage from the fire, which started about midday Sept. 3, was limited to that end, although the blaze also destroyed thousands of dollars worth of electronic equipment. A call from a local businessman who noticed the fire likely kept the home from being a total loss.

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