HAMLET – It was unfortunate for Lauder Quick that the breeze was blowing in the direction that it was late in the afternoon of Tuesday, February 27th.
After burning some trash in an above-ground fire pit, Quick thought that all was well before going inside the house.
But as fate would have it, such was not the case.
Smelling smoke, Quick emerged from his home to find his yard and, most unfortunately, his barn, ablaze.
“It all just happened so fast,” Quick exclaimed, obviously distraught over the event. “I had just gone in the house for a little while and when I came out, well, you can see what happened!”
And “what happened” was a nightmarish spread of destruction all across much of his property.
“It looks as though some of the smoldering embers from the papers that were burning evidently blew into the dry pine straw over there (a grove of pine trees immediately adjacent to Quick’s back yard) and then blew back towards the barn,” said Hamlet Fire Chief Calvin White.
The barn was soon engulfed with flames throughout the west side of the structure.
“I tried to put it out but it was just too much,” said Quick. “We called 911 and the fire trucks got here pretty fast.”
Although the Hamlet Fire Department personnel were quickly able to control the blaze and soon extinguish all of the flames, only about half of the barn was able to be saved.
“Yeah, I had a lot of stuff in there,” Quick said when asked about the contents of the partially burned barn. “A generator that was almost brand new and had never been used, plus several good lawn mowers, and a box of valuables that I guess is gone now, too.”
When he was eventually allowed by the firemen to look into what remained of his storage barn, Quick scanned the inventory of what had been a substantial collection of tools, household goods, furniture and other items, only to turn away in disgust. “I’ll just have to wait till it all cools down to go in and really search through it all, but it don’t look good, I can say that.”
Fire Chief Calvin White advises us all to be very mindful of any and all burning, especially when the conditions are dry and windy. “It (spread of fire) can happen much faster that most people realize.”
Louder Quick would readily agree.
