Fire report
By From staff reports
Published in News on October 25, 2011 1:46 PM
In a recent two-week span, the Goldsboro Fire Department responded to 83 calls.
Of all the calls made from Oct. 7 to Oct. 20, 24 were false alarms and 24 were assists made to Wayne County Emergency Medical Services.
Another 19 of the calls were to vehicle accidents, and three were structure fires.
Firefighters from Station Two, also known as Royall Avenue Express, responded to a fire on Goldsboro Housing Authority property on Oct. 16 around 9 a.m. The response time was reported at four minutes and 32 seconds.
On arrival, firefighters found light smoke outside the front of the home at 1721 Maple Street.
The fire was discovered in the kitchen area of the home, which firefighters attacked with a water extinguisher. The woman living in the home was assisted by Red Cross after saying she lost all of her food, cooking utensils and other goods.
On Oct. 18, firefighters from department headquarters, on Center Street, responded to a house fire at a one-story duplex at 401 North Carolina Street around 4 a.m.
The response time was documented at five minutes.
On the scene, firefighters saw smoke coming out from the building's gable ends, found a working fire in a back bedroom and tapped into a nearby fire hydrant.
A fire was also found in the building's attic. During the process of ventilating the roof, a firefighter stepped through the roof, resulting in additional units being backed off. From inside, the ceiling was pulled down and the attic fire was extinguished.
Tenants of both units were not able to stay in their apartments and Red Cross was contacted.
During a follow-up investigation, tenants from apartment A told firefighters the power had been turned off, as they were moving out later that morning.
The tenant continued that they were sleeping when the fire started. She added that a 3-foot tall "stick candle" was in the back bedroom, which was inserted into a soda bottle that was put into a coffee can to keep it upright. The tenants had been using the candle as a light source.
A man sleeping in front room was woken up by extreme heat. He noticed the apartment was on fire, woke up the female tenant and the couple tried to enter the back bedroom but the fire and smoke were too much, so they exited the apartment and called 911, according to the report.
The man then went to the building's second apartment and told those tenants to exit.
It was determined the fire's probable origin was from the candle left unattended. No one was injured in the fire.
Firefighters of Station Three, on Patetown Road, responded to a structure fire at Rohr Tires at 1808 N. William St. around 11 a.m. Oct. 18.
The response time was three minutes and 27 seconds.
On arrival light smoke was showing and the business' owner informed firefighters that he had extinguished most of the fire by throwing water at the fiberglass siding. A fire was still working on the building's roof, and firefighters pulled a hose from a fire truck and put out the remaining fire.
Other calls from the two-week period included four grass fires, two vehicle fires and a downed power line.