BURKE COUNTY, N.C. — An early morning fire in Burke County Wednesday destroyed a home and spread to a neighbor’s home, firefighters say.
The fire department is less than a minute walk away from the home that caught fire along Mill Street in Drexel. The fire chief said that when they got to the scene, it was burning through the roof and had already spread to some trees in front, which firefighters had to cut down to put out the flames.
Officials said that all three people who lived at the home did get out. They then went to the neighbor’s house to wake him up.
“Everybody was able to get out OK. They came over here to wake me up and when I came out, the house was fully engulfed. I’ve never seen nothing like it before,” neighbor Jack Craig said.
He captured video that shows where the intense heat melted much of the siding on his house.
Burke County- a fire in Drexel destroyed a home and damaged another one next door. Six cars were also damaged by the fire. We just spoke with the fire chief who says his department has loss half of its volunteers over the last 10-years. The story today at noon and 530 on Ch9 pic.twitter.com/46UtencM5x
— Dave Faherty (@FahertyWSOC9) May 18, 2022
Channel 9′s Dave Faherty also learned that the drop in numbers at volunteer fire departments in the area is having an impact on fighting large fires like this one Friday.
Drexel Fire Chief Jerry Baker said that six firefighters showed up to the scene from his department. He said that over the last 10 years, the number of volunteers at Drexel Fire has dropped by half.
“We had two cars on fire, a house on fire, another house fixing to catch on fire and you know, we just don’t have the manpower to take care of that much at one time,” he said.
Three other fire departments were called in to help put out the fire. It took nearly 90 minutes to get the flames under control.
“It takes time to get them here. We do the best we can do with what we’ve got and the short period of time we can do it in. That’s all we can do,” Baker said.
Craig and others hope more people will consider volunteering. He is thankful no one was hurt in the fire.
“Glad everybody is OK and glad everybody made it out. These people lost everything -- their vehicles. They have nothing,” he said.
The fire chief said that at this point, the department hasn’t found anything suspicious about the fire.
The Red Cross is helping the family, who lost nearly everything in the fire.
(WATCH BELOW: Fire destroys two Burke county homes)
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