Blaze damages home
MOUNT PLEASANT -- Thick smoke blinded Fire Department Lt. Steve Bradley when he entered a home Tuesday afternoon in the Candlewood subdivision.
"I couldn't see anything. It was all black," Bradley said.
While breathing through an airpack, he tore holes in the sheetrock ceiling. Two windows on a side of the house blew when water was pumped on them. A television melted.
A wall of heat radiating from the fire drove Battalion Chief Steven Drozd back into the front yard when he attempted to approach the charred back porch where the blaze started. Drozd said he only made it four feet past the backyard fence when he was stopped by the intense heat. From the back porch, the blaze raced across the attic and into the kitchen. Bradley estimated that the fire damaged 60 percent of the interior of the house.
Nearly 20 firefighters battled the blaze at 894 Wynford Court. Hoses snaked two blocks down the street. The closest hydrant had been obscured by pampas grass, Drozd said.
Jennifer Gladden, 27, said she was taking a nap when the fire started. An electrician who arrived to install a back porch fan woke her when he rang the door bell. "I looked out and the porch was on fire," she said.
Investigators had not determined the cause of the fire. Gladden said she thought it began in a plastic bin on the back porch. "Nobody was hurt. That's the main thing," said her father, Danny Gladden.
A firefighter was transported by EMS for a sprained ankle, Drozd said.
Firefighters wearing heavy protective gear in the 90-degree heat attacked the blaze through the front door and worked their way to the back porch. They used a thermal imaging camera to guide them through the smoke.
The 911 call was received at about 3 p.m. "The back porch was fully involved," Drozd said. By 4 p.m., the blaze appeared to be out as firefighters inspected the home interior. A wisp of white smoke rose from the charred porch.
"It went down pretty quick," Drozd said of the fire.
Reach Prentiss Findlay at 937-5711 or pfindlay@postand courier.com.
