Family escapes Georgetown generator fire, but home damaged
Larry Bland is used to the wind and rain hurricanes bring, but Thursday morning posed a different threat when a generator running outside his home caught fire.
Bland said the generator had been running since about 3 a.m. after the house at 107 Lawrence Dr. lost power during the first wave of Hurricane Dorian. Several hours later, he heard a popping noise and ran out to see smoke and flames.
“I heard my wife get my daughter up, told her to get up, get up and move,’” he said. “She was concerned about me. I was out there trying to get the fire and she couldn’t see me . . . so I had to go back and show her my face and go back to the fire.”
Division Chief Jim Thomas of Georgetown County Fire and EMS said a call came in just after 8 a.m. Thursday for a portable generator fire. No injuries were reported and fire officials were working to clear the scene. About 50 percent of the home sustained damage.
Thomas warned of the danger generators can pose, including carbon monoxide exposure.
“It’s very risky to run a portable generator without having the proper wiring in your house,” he said. “You should have a transfer switch to isolate your house from the electrical source. If you don’t, you’re going to back-feed into the power lines and you could harm the linemen out here trying to fix some of the damage we’re going to be have later on.”
Thomas said he wasn’t aware of any other structure fires related to Dorian.
Elsewhere in Georgetown, the National Weather Service on Thursday morning issued a storm surge warning, predicting surges up to 5-8 feet. On Wednesday, several business owners said they were planning to close Thursday and monitor conditions, though they did not plan to leave town.
Shortly before 7:30 a.m. Thursday, Georgetown County Spokeswoman Jackie Broach-Akers said no major damage had been reported across the county at the time, though peak wind gusts were expected around 2 p.m.
Bland described “extensive damage” inside his house, though the extent is not yet known.
“My car and my daughter’s car in the carport, they’re charred,” Bland said.
“I won’t be using generators anymore,” said Bland, who said he’d used them in previous storms without issue. He said he heard it sputtering shortly before the fire. Bland said he, his wife Michele and his 25-year-old daughter Ebeny now plan to wait out Dorian at his in-laws’ home, located directly in front of his own.
“I thank God we were able to get up,” he said. “It didn’t take long for that smoke to come in that house.”
Bland said he’s made it through several major hurricanes..
“I went through Hugo (in 1989) and that was pretty terrifying but this wasn’t that bad,” he said of Dorian. It seemed like it was going to be the typical floods and damaged trees again.
“Until this,” he said.
This story was originally published September 5, 2019 at 11:28 AM.
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