News

Awareness Of Home Owner Prevents Severe Damage
Wednesday, April 27, 2005

On Friday April 22nd at approx. 1306 hours the LFD was alerted for a House fire on Main Street in Bethel. Asst. Chief Steve Brittingham responded in Command 81. Sussex Dispatch advised Command 81 that they were receiving more calls on the incident and believed it to be a working alarm. The incident was now up-graded to a Structure fire alerting Blades and Seaford Fire Departments. Command 81 arrived on scene and found nothing evident from the exterior. Engine 4 and E/T 5 arrived and crews were sent to investigate. Interior crews had an odor of smoke inside structure but nothing visible. Exterior crews found an electrical box outside attached to residence that was smoldering and firefighters began to pull siding from area around electrical box. Fire crews found a small smoldering area that was burning and it was quickly extinguished. Engine 71-9 arrived with Asst. Chief Randy Walls and crew was advised to assist firefighters with extinguishment. Additional Blades and Seaford units arrived and staged holding manpower. Asst. Chief Brittingham placed incident under control at 1326 hours. FM units determined that it was possible that something was not grounded properly and it took ground thru the screws and ignited a small smoldering fire. Minor damage was done to the structure thanks to awareness of the home owner. Last units were placed in service at 1358 hours.