Fast response limits damage

A fast call to 911 and a fast response by firefighters limited fire damage at 209 Second St. on Wednesday afternoon. In the photo, firefighters re-enter the home after the smoke cleared with a thermal imaging camera to make sure there were no hot spots. Burning food in a microwave oven was the likely cause of a Wednesday afternoon fire that damaged the kitchen of a Second Street home and smoked all of its contents.

Gaffney Fire Chief Nathan Ellis said the American Red Cross of Cherokee County was called in to assist the home owner, Victoria Knuckles, as well as the other occupants of the home, which included four children. He said Knuckles had no insurance.

Ellis said he was able to pinpoint the source of ignition as a microwave oven. "It caused pretty good damage to the kitchen and smoke damage to the rest of the home," he said.

A fast call to Cherokee County 911 and a fast response by Gaffney firefighters limited the damage, however.

"We didn't have to break any windows and the roof was not burned," Ellis said. "The home could be salvaged."

Due to new policies enacted earlier this year that stemmed from the lessons learned after a fatal Charleston fire, firefighters from all three Gaffney fire stations were dispatched to the scene at the same time and the first engines on scene immediately tapped into fire hydrants on the street.

Firefighters didn't need to use the hydrants to battle Wednesday's fire, however, as they were able to extinguish the blaze with the water stored in the fire trucks's tanks.