At the end of March, agencies in Newberry County responded to a multitude of fire calls.
Courtesy photo
NEWBERRY COUNTY — The Friendly Fire Department recently assisted with multiple fires in Newberry County, including a house fire.
According to Chief Daniel Werts, the first fire came in at 3 p.m. on Friday, March 25, when they assisted a two-story house fire in Silverstreet.
“Crews from Friendly, Silverstreet, Bush River, Prosperity, Little Mountain, Tower 1, NCEMS, NCSO, Prosperity Rescue and Newberry Rescue all worked tirelessly to bring this massive fire under control. This fire was wind driven, which made the fire load spread quickly,” he said.
Werts said the children in the home were notified by a working smoke alarm and there were no injuries.
Friendly also had a trash fire at a plant at the same time, Saint Philips handled this call and a car fire handled by Whitmire.
“This was a team effort countywide including great work by our dispatchers,” he said.
On Sunday, March 26, Friendly crews were on the scene of a large fire on Highway 395 early that afternoon, which came in as a woods fire, according to Werts.
“Crews arrived to find a large shop, garage, woods and several cars on fire. Assistance was received by Prosperity, Silverstreet, Bush River, Little Mountain, Tower 1, NCEMS, Newberry Rescue, and NCSO,” he said. “Highway 395 was shut down for hours due to the fire.”
Werts reported that there was one minor firefighter injury, no other details were released on the injury.
“This fire is under investigation. South Carolina Forestry was also called in with dozens to assist with the woods fires portion of this call,” he said. ”The past week has been very busy for the Friendly Fire Department with the assistance of county wide stations and volunteers. We had two brush fires Saturday as well as a smoke scare call. We have had several fire alarms the past week as well. The wind conditions were against us in fighting both fires as it contributed to quickly escalating the magnitude of the fires.”