St. Andrews, SC 11/14/2021 (Paul Kirby) – The apartment fire that The Lexington Ledger advised you of on Monday afternoon near Irmo displaced 29 residents and destroyed 8 units before it was brought under control. The fire was reported at the Gleneagle Apartments shortly before 5:45 p.m. on Ruther Glen Court off Kilbrannon Drive in the St. Andrews area of Lexington County.
The first responding fire resources from the Irmo Fire District received additional assistance from the Lexington County Fire Service, the City of Columbia, and the City of West Columbia Fire Departments who were all sent via an automatic aid agreement on the first alarm. Additional equipment and manpower were dispatched on a second alarm after the first units arrived and a full size up of the scene was completed.
Before the first truck and battalion chief arrived on scene from Irmo, multiple callers to Lexington County’s 911 Center had reported that smoke and flames were pushing out of the 8-unit, 2 story apartment complex. When the first fire officer did pull in, he reported that there were flames coming from the roof and several units were already well involved in flames. The fire was also spreading fast in the attic and roof area of the building.
A large diameter supply hose was dropped in by a fire truck to establish a reliable fire flow of water as the first crews went on the offensive. Teams entered the burning building advancing their hoses as they attempted to bring the already deep-seated blaze under control. At one point, commanders realized that the fire had such a head start that they pulled their crews out and began flowing water from their ladder trucks’ nozzles high above the building. Once they had doused the fire with thousands of gallons of water from the ariel devices, they were able to reenter the building with crews to extinguish the remaining fire.
Because this fire spread so quickly and burned the units so completely, it posed some additional dangers to the teams fighting it. One external wall had been weakened by the fire and a collapse zone was set up around that area so that no one would be in harms way if it did come down. Eventually, the fire was extinguished, and it was contained to the building of origin.
During the height of the fire, units from several outlying Lexington County fire stations were moved up to standby status closer into the Irmo area. One fire engine and its crew from the county’s Lake Murray Fire Station was moved into the Irmo Fire District for coverage of its empty stations.
Fire officials from Irmo said that this blaze started as a cooking fire and spread to a nearby Christmas tree. It then ran out onto a balcony where it spread to a part of the building above and into the attic space and roof. At one point, 3 people jumped from their balconies to safety. No one was hurt during these escapes.
The American Red Cross was notified and is assisting the families during their time of loss. If you would like to help families of fires like this, donate to the American Red Cross at https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation.html/.
Opmerkingen