Explosions, Fire Destroy Boats, Homes in N.C.

Dec. 06--Shortly before 5 a.m. Tuesday, people along two streets in Holden Beach woke up to explosions.

Two unoccupied homes on Starfish Drive were fully ablaze, with flames shooting 20 feet over the tops of the burning roofs.

One explosion, which could have been gasoline in a boat, shook Steve Barnes' house clear across the canal on Sand Dollar Street.

When he went outside, he could feel the fire's heat on his porch. Several houses away, the heat melted siding on two homes.

"I've never seen anything like it in my life," Barnes said. His first instinct was to grab his garden hose to prepare to soak his own home if embers spread the fire.

Neighbors began dialing 911. The flames were so intense some initially had difficulty pinpointing what street the fire was on.

After firefighters got the fire contained and the sun came up, the damage was evident.

The fire began at 115 Starfish Drive, a short street off Ocean Boulevard West. That home burned to the ground. Just a shell remained at 113 Starfish, the home next door. Storm doors on the front of the house stood gaping open. On a vacant lot, two boats on trailers were destroyed and two more damaged.

No one was injured by the fire, said Doug Todd, the chief of the Tri-Beach Volunteer Fire Department.

The official cause of the fire is being listed as undetermined.

Todd was still compiling a damage estimate but said it would likely be as high as half a million dollars.

Neither home was occupied during the fire. The family in 113 Starfish had just left the day before, while the owner of 115 Starfish stayed at someone else's home Monday night, Todd said.

The blaze drew volunteer firefighters from the Tri-Beach, Supply, Civietown and Grissettown-Longwood departments. When Todd was crossing the Holden Beach Bridge, he could see the flames all the way down the island.

It took the firefighters around 40 minutes to get the fire contained, but they were still spraying water on the fire to put out hot spots around 8 a.m.

Holden Beach Police Chief Wally Layne said the house at 113 Starfish Drive had just been remodeled. To keep the fire from spreading farther, firefighters hosed down the roof of the next house in the row, at 111 Starfish. It sustained some shingle and water damage, Layne said.

The firefighters, some covered with black soot and sweat, paused midmorning for their first meal, Hardee's biscuits and bananas, as neighbors swapped stories about what they had heard or seen.

The canal, off the Intracoastal Waterway, was littered with chunks of charred debris, which floated just beneath the surface.

Local news editor Dave Ennis contributed to this report.

Julian March: 343-2099

On Twitter: @julian_march