Feb 11 & 16, 2010 - Sheppeard, Goldman, Randall

By KIP BURKE news editor

The entire carport and utility room of this McLendon Drive home were damaged.Thursday, February 11, saw the Washington Fire Department responding to an unusual two separate residence fires in the same day.
Just after 1 p.m. Thursday, firefighters were called to 101 McLendon Drive, the first house off Whitehall Street. The home, owned by Emma Sheppeard and rented by Maerene Grant and family, suffered substantial damage when a clothes drier caught fire.
“The drier in the utility room at the back of the carport caught fire,” said Fire Chief Alan Poss, “and the residents smelled smoke inside and reported the fire.” By the time firefighters arrived some three minutes later, flames were rolling out of the front of the carport. Wind drove the flames into the roof structure of the frame home and caused more damage than it should have, he said. “It caused a considerable amount of damage.”
Friday’s first fire started in the clothes dryer of this McLendon Avenue home and spread in high winds.Using two attack lines, firefighters, including two off-duty men, attacked the fire and brought it under control. The house was about a 30 percent loss, Poss estimated.
The second fire call came at nearly midnight. A structure fire was reported on Parkway Drive in the Jackson Heights subdivision. It was spotted by neighbor Edward Compton. “I saw the fire from my porch and had a neighbor call 911, and I ran up to see if anyone was home,” he said. “The fire was heavy in the kitchen and I tried to put it out with a garden hose until the firemen got here.”
The home, owned by Lacy Goldman and rented to Ernest Edward Willis, 57, had flames coming out of the roof by the time firefighters arrived. Neighbors said they thought the resident was inside, Poss said, so “the captain on duty entered the burning home and did a primary search of the room he slept in, but couldn’t find him.”
Washington firefighters search for a man reported to be in this burning Jackson Heights home but found him in the back seat of the car at right.As the fire fighters attacked the fire and prepared to conduct another search inside, one volunteer noticed a man asleep in the back seat of the car sitting in the driveway of the burning home. A deputy opened the locked car and rescue personnel found Willis nearly naked in the cold and barely conscious.
He was transported to Wills Memorial Hospital for examination. Poss said that the damage to the home approached 70 percent.
Tuesday evening saw yet a third residential house fire. Firefighters were called to the home of Roger Randall in the 3800 block of Metasville Road just after 5 p.m. Tuesday. Fire units from the Metasville Volunteer Fire Department, Washington Fire Department, and Tignall Volunteer Fire Department all helped fight a stubborn blaze in an old structure. A pump-and-dump operation was set up to bring water to the fire, and personnel were called in from all over the county to provide manpower.