Middleway fire displaces family
MIDDLEWAY, W.Va. — A fire was limited to one bedroom Monday night after Middleway Volunteer Fire Co. firefighters noticed information coming in on monitors and arrived at the scene just as they were officially dispatched to the fire, Chief Mike Mood said.
The house, with mostly water and smoke damage, will need major rehab work, Mood said. There were no injuries.
The power also had to be turned off, so the American Red Cross is helping a family that has been temporarily displaced, he said. The family has around seven or eight members, he said.
The fire at 7660 Leetown Road occurred around 10:30 p.m. Monday.
It most likely started from a heating pad, but the insurance company will conduct an investigation, Mood said.
Paid and volunteer firefighters in the station saw on monitors information being entered by a dispatcher for a fire nearby, and got their gear together and headed out before officially being dispatched, Mood said, "so by the time the dispatcher had enough information to dispatch we were actually pulling up on the scene."
That combination of technology with paid and volunteer staffing on hand at the firehouse seeing the information helped save the house, Mood said. He also credited the response of other area fire companies, including Independent, Citizens, South Berkeley, Baker Heights and Shepherdstown.
Arriving firefighters saw fire through a second-floor window and the family in the side yard, Mood said.
Firefighters got a quick attack on the fire, which was about a half-mile to three-quarters of a mile from the Middleway firehouse. "It was really pretty amazing," Mood said.