Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 19, 1994 TAG: 9401190143
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN and ADRIENNE PETTY STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
As fire companies from Rocky Mount, Glade Hill and Boones Mill fought the 4 p.m. fire at Candlewood apartments on Court Street, they were hampered as the water they were using froze on the ground.
Claude Webster, the county director of public safety, said the fire apparently started in a second-floor apartment and spread into a third-floor apartment and the building's attic.
He said residents were reluctant at first to vacate the building, so police were sent in to force them to evacuate.
No cause for the fire was immediately known. Gretchen Brammer, 27, said she was in an adjacent building at a friend's apartment when a representative of the Fire Department called on the phone.
"C building is on fire," she quoted the caller as saying.
As she ran out onto the porch, she saw flames shooting out of a second-story bedroom window in a building across from where she was visiting.
She said the flames were being whipped sideways as the wind howled between the two buildings.
"There was a cloud of smoke, and you couldn't see," said Fanny Pannell, another resident.
Webster said a Rocky Mount police officer reported the fire. The officer said the apartment was fully engulfed in flames, but only the two apartments were burned. Others suffered water damage.
The building had to be vacated overnight because the electricity had been shut off.
At first, county officials set up a temporary shelter in Lee M. Waid School. But that proved unnecessary after all the residents found temporary shelter with family and friends.
by CNB