For one couple and four firemen early Monday morning was a very scary time.
Harmony Road residents Bryan and Kayla Wallace were asleep in their home when they were awoken by smoke. When they exited they first saw smoke from the second floor.
By the time the sun came up, the home was destroyed, and four firemen had narrowly escaped after the ceiling collapsed while they were on the second floor.
It started at 2:26 a.m. when the Tri-Community Volunteer Fire Department was dispatched to the residence, arriving at 2:30 a.m. Initial inspection showed flames and smoke coming from a small area on the second floor, according to Tri-Community Fire Chief Cole Robbins. Robbins requested additional water because the size of the home with the Southwest, South Marion and Foxworth departments responding.
Robbins, Tyler Creel, Cameron Singley and Kade Ramshur entered the home through the front door. The fire was contained initially to the second floor only, and all four firemen went up the stairs to combat it. While fighting the fire upstairs, the fire spread to the attic, unbeknownst to the firemen.
While still on the second floor, the ceiling and roof collapsed into the living room on the first floor while the men were upstairs, causing the first floor to become fully engulfed. The stairs that the firemen had first climbed up were now in flames, trapping the men on the second floor of the burning residence.
“In 13 years never has anything like this happened or come close to happening,” Robbins said in a phone interview Tuesday morning.
Not only were the men trapped but because of the fallen debris, something caught their hose, shutting off the water so they had no water to help escape the inferno. They knew at this point they needed to get out of the building and were trying to determine the best way. But Robbins said between the dark smoke and flames you could not see.
The stair railing collapsed from the flames, causing Creel to fall from the second floor to the first floor. Thankfully, he was not injured and was able to make it out the front door.
The other three were still trapped upstairs in the raging fire and decided the best thing to do was jump down to the first floor to get out. Robbins and Ramshur made the jump and were able to safely make it out the back door.
“By the grace of God nothing was broken. I knew I might break a leg if I jumped but I would do it to get out,” Robbins said.
Ramshur, who will be 18 in two weeks, described what happened Tuesday.
“It was like I was in a lake of fire, and it was burning all around me. I couldn’t see anything; my face mask was fogging up, and smoke was everywhere,” he said. “I just stuck with my training and remembered there was a door in the back when I went in. So I ran for the door and jumped off the back porch and got away.”
Meanwhile, Singley was unable to determine if the first three had made it out of the fire due to the limited visibility and sought a different way to exit the home. He made his way to a small window and signaled to the firemen he was still there and trapped. Outside Creel and Robbins climbed the ladders to the roof to get to Singley. Initially the window was not big enough to pull Singley through, but Robbins and Creel worked on the window, making it bigger. Once Singley was able to remove his breathing apparatus and helmet, he was able to be pulled through the opening head first.
After he was able to turn right side up, he, Creel and Robbins climbed down the ladder. Robbins realized once the four were out of the house between the adrenaline rush and heat exhaustion, he had to call Columbia Fire Department for mutual aid for manpower. Columbia responded, and the flames were eventually extinguished.
The home was a total loss.
“I still can’t wrap my head around this,” homeowner Bryan Wallace said Tuesday outside the still smoldering structure. He and his wife were waiting for the insurance adjuster to come.
“It could have been so much worse,” Kayla Wallace said.
Robbins said he has been in touch with the other firefighters who all were shook up but otherwise all right. Creel suffered very minor damage to his hands from breaking out the window.
The only other injury came from when a hose coupling struck just above the upper lip of South Marion Chief Anthony Dillon, causing him to get stitches. He was helping during water shuttling operations and was not inside the building.
For Robbins it has been a time of reflection in the few days since then. He said he wasn’t scared when all of it happed, but afterward when he had time to think, it got to him.
“Thinking about it you get scared because of what could have happened. I knew I wouldn’t get burned because the gear was designed to protect you,” he said. "It has given me more of a positive outlook."
Tri-Community responded with 15 firefighters, three engines, one tanker and one squad truck. The Columbia Fire Department responded with six firefighters, Southwest had one firefighter and one engine, South Marion had one firefighter and Foxworth had two engines, one tanker and five firefighters.
