Lightning destroys a home on Scenic View
Ranger – A young couple purchased a doublewide trailer that burned down the day they signed the closing papers.
“They had just left the lawyer’s office and came straight home to find it on fire,” Ranger Volunteer Fire Chief Mike Taylor said. “When we got there, we saw flames coming out both sides.”
Authorities say the couple had been renting the property for about a month and a half leading up to the purchase date. The couple lost everything inside the trailer, including their puppy.
“The house is still standing but the inside of it is gone,” Taylor said, adding that firefighters buried the couple’s deceased dog in the yard before leaving. “That’s how sad it was.”
Firefighters were dispatched to 1051 Old Murphy Road around 5 p.m. March 17 and used about 9,000 gallons of water to fully extinguish the blaze over the course of two hours. Authorities have not determined a cause of the fire; however, state officials are involved with the investigation.
“We found some suspicious things,” Taylor said.
The March 17 blaze fell on the heels of a fire that kept volunteers occupied for about six hours. On March 16, firefighters responded to 71 Scenic View Drive and found a wooden single-family home completely destroyed. Officials believe lightning struck near the home around 7 a.m.
Authorities say a sheriff’s deputy responded to a lightning strike that blew a fuse in a circuit breaker at a nearby property but didn’t smell smoke or find anything that would have suggested a fire. Officials say an electrical component inside the destroyed home may have been smoldering for a while before igniting after the deputy left the area.
A Cherokee County Department of Social Services employee saw smoke when they arrived at work and called dispatch.
“We figure the place had been burning about 48 minutes before we got the call,” Taylor said. “The roof had already caved in. After the initial knockdown, we were there another four hours because there was too much of a safety risk to go inside to overhaul it.”
Firefighters used about 40,000 gallons of water to extinguish the three-story 2,500 square-foot home. No one occupied the property at the time of the fire, as the homeowners live in Florida.
Several volunteer departments helped fight both fires last week, with nine different agencies working the blaze on Scenic View Drive. No injuries were reported from either event.
Each of the 14 fire departments in the county could use additional volunteers. Interested parties are urged to contact the appropriate department for more information.