On Sunday, Fire Chief Teddy Stamatis had just left his home to go shopping when a fire call came in for a working fire at the Macclesfield Rural Fire Department's station.
On arrival Stamatis found heavy fire showing in the firehouse. He was able to get one of the apparatus bay doors open and remove one of his tankers to safety.
He tried to get back in but the building was too heavily involved. He could hear the other local fire departments responding and many of his firefighters were now arriving on location.
There wasn't much they could do until the other fire apparatus arrived. A total of 10 different stations responding with over 70 firefighters, and they took several hours to bring the fire, which was reported at about 9:30 a.m. under control. Crews were still extinguishing hot spots and removing debris at 4:30 pm, seven hours after arrival.
The blaze left four fire engines totally destroyed as well as all of the contents of the station.
Local fire departments contacted Stamatis offering him equipment from their stations to help him out along with his 23 members.
Chief Stamatis said that they had been on 24 hour call waiting to assist other local fire companies in the many towns in North Carolina that are completely flooded.
Over 900 water rescues were made including over 500 people rescues from one town in New Bern, North Carolina.
The water level is still rising even though the storm has passed by.
Early this week, some 2,300 residents have been asked to leave their homes due to the high water rising at a fast rate. Officials report that this will last for several more days.
The town of Macclesfield is a small town in Edgecombe County, NC. It is one of the few towns in the area that is still dry.
It is almost impossible to drive 10-15 miles east or south and not be met by closed off roads due to high waters and debris on the roads.
The departments from two counties that responded to Macclesfield’s emergency were South Edgecombe, Pinetops, Conetoe, Baker Town, East Nash, Tosinot, Bethel, Speed, Sharp Point, Fountian and Sharpsburg
Chief Stamatis said would like to thanks all the departments that called in offering to help with equipment and truck doing what they could to help the department get back in service as soon as possible.
