Edmund, SC 01/18/2022 (Paul Kirby) – Firefighters from the Central and Southern Regions of the county endured cold temperatures to battle a house fire on Bethany Church Road Monday night. Temperatures had struggled out of the 30s by midday Monday but by the time the fire was reported just before 8:00 p.m., the ambient temps were plunging again, and the cold was exacerbated by a strong wind that had been blowing all day.
Firefighters from the Lexington County’s Edmund Fire Station were first on scene and their reports indicate that they found a single-family home with flames and smoke coming from its eaves and roof. Within mere moments of that crew’s arrival, more fire engines companies and their crews began pulling up on scene and an interior fire attack was mounted.
The first battalion chief marked on-scene and he began to establish the Fire Ground Command Structure that would organize the arriving resources by task. There were teams on fire attack, another doing a primary search for anyone trapped, equipment operators were establishing a reliable water supply, and another team laddered the home to ventilate above the fire once instructed to do so by command. Traffic quickly became an issue on the rural two-lane road as there were multiple pieces of fire apparatus on scene at this point. The incident commander requested a sheriff’s deputy respond to help deal with that. In short order, all of this came together and the carefully choregraphed effort brought the fire under control.
Mid-Carolina Electric was requested to respond to disconnect the home from its power so that firefighters weren’t working in water and other conditions that could have become energized. Once this was done, the teams moved into a salvage and overhaul phase ensuring the fire wouldn’t rekindle later.
The home was left uninhabitable by the fire. The cause and origin have not been released at this point.
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