Three blazes hit Goldsboro
By John Joyce
Published in News on January 29, 2013 1:46 PM
News-Argus/BOBBY WILLIAMS
Goldsboro firefighters help extinguish a fire at Applewhite’s Screen Printing at 123 W. Walnut St. The fire started soon after 6 p.m. Store owner Handy Applewhite and an employee were working inside the store at the time but escaped unharmed. The fire was blamed on a light fixture that exploded and sparked a blaze in the ceiling.
News-Argus/BOBBY WILLIAMS
Firefighters check for hot spots at a fire at Rick’s Used Tires at 108 N. George St., near the site of the Walnut Street fire. The call for the second fire came shortly after the Walnut Street call. Authorities said its cause was unknown but suspicious.
News-Argus/BOBBY WILLIAMS
Firefighters check for hot spots at a fire at Rick’s Used Tires at 108 N. George St., near the site of the Walnut Street fire. The call for the second fire came shortly after the Walnut Street call. Authorities said its cause was unknown but suspicious.
The alarm calls came one after another, three structure fires in less than an hour.
First, a T-shirt shop and then a tire store -- the third, on Frank Street, was an abandoned residence thought to have a squatter living inside.
Smoke billowed out through the roof of a three-storefront building at the corner of George and Walnut streets. The black clouds coming from inside the shop turned gray when water from Goldsboro Fire Department hoses hit the fire, touching the tops of downtown's tallest buildings briefly and turning the city skyline orange.
Applewhite's Screen Printing, at 123 W. Walnut St., caught fire at just after 6 p.m., when a fluorescent light fixture blew and sparked a blaze in the ceiling, investigators said. The two stores adjacent to the T-shirt and sign-making shop were threatened, fire department officials said, but not damaged.
"Everything was contained to the ceiling," Fire Department Capt. Ron Stemp said, adding that the estimated damage was no more than $10,000 -- $5,000 of which was to equipment inside the shop.
"It's ironic that we were even in there," store owner Handy Applewhite said, explaining that he and an employee were working late when smoke started to fill the building. "(The fire department) got here within five minutes, man, thank God. We'll be back up and running in a few days."
Meanwhile, directly behind his store, tucked away behind the brick buildings that are mostly abandoned, Rick's Used Tires was smoldering away.
The small building at 108 N. George St. caught fire "by unknown means," according to a police report. Fire officials said the cause appeared to have originated outside, but any evidence was destroyed by the flames.
Firefighters worked inside the garage and office portions of the building as the owner hurried to lug away salvageable items such as a credit card machine and a large screen TV.
The damage listed on the police report at $40,000 was later revised by Assistant Fire Chief Eric Lancaster to closer to $8,000 to "building and contents."
Then, just as firefighters were cooling down and beginning to break down their equipment from the two downtown blazes, a third call came out.
Without hesitation, the turnout gear was thrown back over their shoulders as they hoofed it back to their trucks.
Reports of a structure fire at 420 Frank St. proved to be accurate, with a cinderblock house engulfed on arrival. The house, owned by Shirley Ann Williams, was abandoned, but she had allowed two homeless men to live there. One was outside, but firefighters and police officers weren't sure if the second had made it out.
But by the time the Goldsboro and Belfast Fire departments had the blaze extinguished and the search completed, no body had been found.
It would later be discovered that both men had left the home at 11 that morning and been away all day. The cause of the house fire, much like the tire shop, remains unknown, but both were classified as suspicious by investigators. The damage to 420 Frank St. was listed on the police report at $27,000.
"I would say that's busier than usual, three structures, three EMS and an alarm, it's definitely not a frequent thing," Lancaster said.
And that, Jane Welsh said, is a good thing.
The Goldsboro resident still hasn't gotten over the fire that "broke her heart."
And when she saw that orange skyline Monday as she drove toward the city's core, it brought back unwelcome memories.
"When I saw it, I thought about the Paramount fire," she said, referring to the fire that destroyed the historic theater in 2005. "That was a sad night."
Staff Writer Kenneth Fine contributed to this report.