Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 8, 1991 TAG: 9104080125
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Six county firefighters were treated with oxygen and ice packs after being overcome by heat while battling the blaze on Jae Valley Road for about 45 minutes. Temperatures in the Roanoke Valley rose into the mid-80s Sunday afternoon.
One of those firefighters, Tony Wray, was treated at the emergency room at Roanoke Memorial Hospital Sunday night.
Gene Wagner, chief of Roanoke County fire company No. 6 at Mount Pleasant, said flames were visible all over the house when firefighters arrived about 3:45 p.m.
The fire gutted the pre-constructed double-wide home after spreading through the attic. Rodney Ferguson, a county fire inspector, said the blaze started from a short in a light fixture in a bedroom ceiling.
"Fire was coming out both ends and the windows," Wagner said. "The windows had blown out."
Mark Potter, who lived in the house, said he was picking up debris down the hill when he looked up and noticed smoke coming from the house. He said he ran into the burning house several times to rescue his three cats.
On his third trip, smoke and heat overcame him and he had to be helped out by a county firefighter, he said.
Earlier, in Northwest Roanoke, an upstairs bedroom of a Franwill Avenue house burned after an extension cord caught fire.
District Chief Garry R. Basham said the cord had been plugged in downstairs and run upstairs to the bedroom, which had no electrical receptacles. A television and a lamp had been plugged into the cord in the bedroom.
Firefighters said about 4 feet of the insulation on the cord melted away from the electrical wire when it overheated.
Basham said the owner of the house, Lois B. Hooks, was talking on the telephone when she heard crackling noises. A neighbor then alerted her to smoke coming from the upstairs.
No one was injured in the 3:11 p.m. blaze.
by CNB