House fire was set, fire marshal says
Hose at the ready, a firefighter prepares to make entry on the second floor of a Pireway Road home Monday. (Deuce Niven, TLT photos)
By DEUCE NIVEN
tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com
Fire that damaged a two-story home on Pireway Road in Tabor City was set, Columbus County Fire Marshal Shannon Blackwell said Monday.
“It was an intentional fire,” Blackman said.
Neighbors spotted smoke coming from a front corner window on the second floor of the home on Pireway Road at Live Oak Street and called 911 just before 1 p.m. Flames had erupted from a window by the time the first fire trucks arrived.
Firefighters contained the blaze to that room, Blackman said.
Flames leap from a second floor room on Pireway Road.
“There was sheet rock over tongue-in-groove wood, and the fire never got to the tongue-in-groove board,” Blackman said.
There was smoke and heat damage to some adjacent rooms, but the old home was in poor condition before the fire and is likely a total loss, Blackman said.
Owned by Jimmy Jolly’s Rental King Corp., the house was a rental property, its most recent tenants’ lease expired Friday, Blackman said.
Look for more on this story in the next Tabor-Loris Tribune in print and online.
