Lexington County firefighters respond to multiple suspicious fires south & west of Platt Springs Rd.

Lexington County, SC (Paul Kirby) - Firefighters from Lexington County’s Fire Service, assisted by crews from the Town of Batesburg-Leesville, fought multiple fires Monday afternoon. Most of these occurred south and west of Platt Springs Road. Several are classified as suspicious and are under investigation.

Just before 1:30 p.m. Monday, crews from the county and Batesburg-Leesville responded to a mobile home fire in the 100 block of Lick Creek Court. This is off Pond Branch Road right outside the town of Batesburg-Leesville. It is a small, rugged road that has a few homes on it. It can be hard for the large fire trucks to navigate. 

When the first crew arrived, they found a double wide mobile home burning. Firefighters attacked the blaze and were able to bring it under control using multiple teams and water carried to the scene in tanker trucks. 

This is the second fire to occur on Lick Creek Court in the past few weeks. The previous fire involved an older mobile home that was located deep in the woods. A Lexington County firefighter was transported from that fire by EMS after it was thought he encountered a plant that caused an allergic reaction. He was treated and later released. Both the first and second fire are being investigated by the Lexington County Sheriff's Department with the assistance from the Lexington County Fire Service’s Fire Marshall Division. 

While firefighters were still at the Lick Creek Court fire, a second call originally reported as a structure was dispatched in the 600 block of Founders Road near Longview Street. This happened about 3:00 p.m.

It was difficult to understand through radio traffic exactly what was burning when firefighters arrived; however, the fire was intense enough to require several crews to stay at that location for an extended period to put it out. They also had to carry water to the scene in tankers to extinguish the blaze.

That fire was quickly reported as suspicious and sheriff’s deputies began flooding the region in the event someone was driving around setting fires. At one point, fire crews were given the description of a vehicle and told to be on the lookout for it. Law enforcement officials have not said if the vehicle’s driver was located or if they have associated it with any of these fires.

About 20 minutes after the Founders Road fire, a mobile home that had already caught fire about 8:30 p.m. Sunday night was reported to be burning again. This was in the 200 block of Doe Trail off SC Hwy. 6 in the Sharpe’s Hill area. Callers who reported this fire said they saw a group of juveniles run from the scene just before the second fire was seen.

Once again firefighters had to stay on the scene for some time to put this fire out. Deputies also responded to make a report calling this a suspicious fire as well.

Shortly after the Doe Trail fire, a brush fire was reported off Shumpert Mill Road near Thor Rd. Firefighters were able to quickly extinguish this fire and they have not said what started it. 

At about the same time, a fire was reported in the Red Bank area of the county just off Platt Springs Road east of South Lake Drive. This fire did not appear to be suspicious in nature but was classified as an illegal burn that got out of control. 

Last week, there were several structure fires that occurred within the same hour near the intersection of Old Charleston Road and Crystal Springs Drive. This is in the same general region as the fires Monday. One of these was a structure off Ollie Road near James Dunbar Road. The second was an abandoned mobile home off Windy Wood Road near Foxtrot. Both of these were under investigation. 

We will request further information regarding the status of these investigations from the sheriff’s department and update this story as that becomes available.