By Rob Ginter - Staff Writer
A house on Christy Creek is left in ruins after a blaze that started Saturday night.
The Elliottville and Morehead Fire Departments responded to the fire on Walker Branch at the home of Freeman Chadwell. Elliottville Fire Chief Jackie Thomas was the first person on the scene.
“When we got there the house was fully involved inside,” Thomas said. We tried to remove heat from exposures because we couldn’t do an interior attack because the interior was fully involved. We just tried to keep it under control so it wouldn’t damage the electric poles and cars in the near area.”
“He did have a wood stove and we think it was started by that,” Thomas said. “After the house had burned down you could see the chimney and it had a lot of mortar missing from the joints.”
“It was 11 degrees outside during the fire,” Thomas said. “We had help from the road department to keep the road salted because it became slick because of all the water being used.”
According to fire officials, Chadwell moved into the residence in 1939.
“With a lot of people going back to burning wood stoves, people need to be careful and make sure they keep their chimneys clean,” Thomas said.
According to fire officials, Grayson Rural Electric and Rowan Water also aided them during the incident.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
