Making The news!!!

[FIREGIRL4EVER]

Well we come from a small city the only real reason people know us is because Kelly Pickler's from here(yuck). Neways we had a five-alarm house fire today and my fire dept was one of 8 to respond. We recieved the call at 9:30 this morning and cleared the call at 18:54. We had a long day but I got to go in on one of the biggest house fires I've seen since I've been on the fire dept. here's the news story..........

STANLY COUNTY, N.C. -- A five alarm fire completely destroyed a couple’s home in Stanly County and investigators say they now know what started the fire.

The homeowners were inside Wednesday morning when the fire started. They smelled smoke and called 911. They were able to get out while escaping injury; however, the same could not be said for most of their belongings.

Homeowner Charles Akin says his wife smelled the smoke and he went outside to investigate.

“Smoke was coming out the vents on the back of the house,” Akin said.

He called 911 and eight different crews responded to the home in New London.

“I’ve seen it on television, it’s not the same when it’s yours,” explained Akin.

When firefighters arrived they said it was too dangerous to let the Akins back inside.

“So we had to sit in the truck and watch the house burn,” Akin said.

When the smoke cleared, investigators say a short in an electric motor was to blame for the destruction. The single story home is considered a total loss, but crews were able to save a 1,400 square foot basement room filled with collectibles.

“Covered… from the floor to the ceiling with Barbie dolls,” explained Akin who adds that some are worth several hundred dollars. He also collects 1/24 scale models of NASCAR cars, which were saved.

The Akins say focusing on what was not lost in the fire is helping them cope with the damage.

“You can rebuild a house so I’m not too worried about that. I’m just glad that none of us and none of the firemen got hurt,” Akin said.

Friends of the Akins have been arriving throughout the day to help the couple salvage whatever they can and throw away whatever they can’t.

They say for the meantime, the Akins will be staying just up the road at their daughter’s house.

[fireman4949]

Holy crap! Over 9 hours at a SFD!

Just how big was this place?

[FIREGIRL4EVER]

Dude it was one of those million dollar homes. All volunteer fire depts. responding with about 4 to 5 people plus overhaul yeah 9 hours.

[Firefighter2230]

negative more like 6.5-7 hours at most and that includes loading the 5 inch back up that we laid down.

you don't include going back later for the flared up bed after in the initial time on scene

it was one mell of a hess though and the article wasn't lying about the barbie collection filled up the biggest part of the basement.

[FIREGIRL4EVER]

True I was adding in the 2nd dispatch to put out the mattress fire sorry.

[Hexxus]

http://www.co.garrett.md.us/Emergenc...Incidents.aspx

That's the biggest one I've been involved in. We were there for over 10 hours, but the report says 6, which isn't true because we got dispatched at 4:15am and didn't leave until around 3:30pm. We made a lot of public news, newspapers, etc. I know a bunch had a clip of a couple of us firefighting, walking around, and relaxing. That was a long day. And that was a big *** restaurant. It was hot as hell too. The last picture doesn't do it justice. It was so huge, and when we were done, there was little left.

[ullrichk]

In some places tradition dictates that if you make the news (name or photograph), you buy the crew ice cream.