Boiling Springs, SC (Paul Kirby) – A good Samaritan’s alert may have saved the lives and home of a family with a disabled son. The women’s alert woke a sleeping man and she called 911 as a fully involved shed fire was about to spread to the mobile home.
Sarah Lee was driving in the 900 block of Windy Wood Road near Boiling Springs when she saw a shed burning next to a doublewide. She quickly pulled into the edge of the yard and started honking her truck’s horn. She also immediately called 911 and reported the fire.
Lee said within minutes, a man who had been sleeping inside the home came out to see what the noise was. Lee pointed toward the burning shed to alert the man. The flames were about to spread to the home and was melting plastic trim on the family’s truck. The man quickly moved his truck as the fire spread to a tall pine and sent embers into the air. Eventually, a small spot fire started in the dry grass almost 50 yards away.
The fire service from Boiling Springs got there quickly, according to Lee. Within minutes, the firefighters were cooling the mobile home and pouring water on the destroyed shed. “Goodness, I still have goose bumps,” Lee said. “I'm so glad they heard me honking the horn and were able to get their vehicles moved and the house didn’t get severely damaged. I was definitely in the right place at the right time; that's for sure!” Lee said that later the mother of the family said she had a quadriplegic son inside. “He really could have died if the home caught fire. I’m still shaking,” Lee said.
Firefighters made quick work of putting the fire out. The shed burned to the ground and there was some minor damage to the truck, but without Lee’s alert, this fire could have been deadly.
