Furnace Eyed in North Carolina Funeral Home Blaze

April 16, 2012
The four-alarm fire destroyed the Salisbury funeral home.

A North Carolina funeral home was destroyed in a massive four-alarm blaze Friday afternoon.

Fire officials are looking at a faulty furnace as the possible cause of the fire that destroyed the Salisbury funeral home, according to WSOC TV.

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When family members of two elderly sisters who died on the same day arrived to make arrangements, they found the funeral home engulfed in flames.

Crews from nearly 20 departments were involved in the attack for several hours.

"The firefighters did a heck of a job--best they could for the first 15 minutes," Salisbury Fire Chief Rob Parnell told reporters. "There was a tremendous amount of smoke (and we) couldn't see where they were. For their safety, we pulled out."

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Caskets containing the sisters' bodies were removed by firefighters. However, an urn containing the remains of a solider has not been found.

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