Chapin, SC (Paul Kirby) - A multistory home on Bogator Road off Lakemont Drive outside of the town of Chapin caught fire Sunday morning. The home was heavily damaged by fire and water before the crews from multiple fire departments were able to bring it under control.
Crews from the Lexington County Fire Service and the Irmo Fire District were dispatched just before 6:30 a.m. Sunday. The first trucks and personnel from Lexington County’s Amick’s Ferry Road fire station advised that there were both smoke and flames visible from the second story when they arrived. Because the burning home was some distance from a fire hydrant, that first crew began to request additional tanker trucks respond from Newberry County and the Columbia/Richland Fire Service.
As the fire progressed, a rural water supply system was set up. This system requires that a large portable, expanding tank be set up and specially built water tanker trucks carry water from a nearby fire hydrant to the scene. They then quickly dump their water into the portable tank where an attack or water supply fire engine draws it out while the tankers trucks repeat the trip.
When a fire truck equipped with an aerial device from Chapin’s East Boundary Street station arrived, they were able to quickly knock the flames down to allow a more aggressive attack on the fire. Within a short amount of time, all the firefighters working together were able to bring the fire under control.
At the height of the fire, a battalion chief requested that the Lexington County Sheriff's Department respond with their boat equipped with a large fire pump. It can draw water out of Lake Murray and supply fire trucks that are fighting the fire. That boat, based at Bundrick Island near Sandy Beach on the Lexington Side of Lake Murray, eventually went enroute but by the time it arrived, the fire was under control.
Just after 8:30 a.m. the fire was deemed out. Firefighters were still in the salvage and overhaul phase at the home and a fire marshal was enroute to investigate the cause of the blaze. It is much too early to determine the exact monetary loss to the home.
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