Flames scorch Lynchburg apartment buildings

By David Thompson
Lynchburg News & Advance
Published: March 24, 2008

What started as a small brush fire Saturday afternoon quickly turned into trouble for a Lynchburg apartment complex, displacing six families.

Bystanders and Lynchburg firefighters said either a small bush or a bit of mulch caught a spark, and the wind wreaked havoc with it at Maple Ridge Apartments on Reusens Road. Emergency dispatchers received the brush fire call at 4:20 p.m.

No residents were hurt in the blaze. Two Lynchburg firefighters sustained minor injuries, according to Lynchburg Fire Battalion Chief J.P. Kilgore.The fire started in front of building C, witnesses said. Then a gust of wind redirected the fire toward building D, which suffered the worst damage.

“I ran over there and started banging on doors and screaming ‘fire’ and trying to get everybody out,” said Dorothy Hall, a building D resident.

“It was just a matter of minutes and the flames were out of control,” she said.

Don Callaway, who lives in building C, was the first to try to put out the fire.

“My wife and I, we tried to get some water,” he said, “but the wind was too strong.”

Kilgore said the new mulch, which had been spread in the last few days, contributed to the problem.

The vinyl siding, laid over plywood siding, added to the combustible mix.

It took between 1½ to two hours to extinguish the fire, Kilgore said. Complicating matters, a couple of hot spots flared up, even after the main fire was out.

Kilgore said seven units were condemned by a City of Lynchburg building inspector, and seven more sustained damage from the blaze. He estimated damages to the building at “several hundred thousand dollars.”

Firefighters converged on building C at least twice to investigate and extinguish smoke seeping from various places.

The city’s response to the fire included sending five engine companies, two ladder companies, three medic units, and four chief officers.

With such an overwhelming response, Kilgore said mutual aid companies had to be called in from area counties to man some Lynchburg stations.

Kilgore said the cause was most likely “discarded smoking material.”

Doug Eggleston, with the Historic Virginia Chapter of the American Red Cross, said his organization is helping five of the six families with a place to stay.

Based on the varying degrees of damage to the apartments, the organization is also helping with food and necessities while the families are displaced.

“The wind really controlled it, and that’s what did the damage,” Hall said.

Kilgore said he would return to the scene Saturday night to check on the situation, and the complex’s private security team would keep an eye on things overnight.

He said mulch fires usually start in the spring, and that it’s a good idea to keep dry mulch at a safe distance from buildings.

“When it’s nice and fluffy and freshly applied, it’ll burn like the dickens,” he said.