Friends help woman during fire

A Clarendon woman is grateful for her neighbors and local firemen this week after a fire threatened her home last Friday, February 27.

Nell Gray said she was reading that morning when a smoke alarm went off at her home at Sixth and Gorst and she turned to see smoke billowing towards her.

“I started to go get my purse (in the back bedroom), but then I thought ‘get out of here.’”

The 90-year-old, who uses a walker to get around, made it to the front porch about the same time that a neighbor noticed what was happening.

Clarendon College freshman Sarah Luttrell was across the street in her parents’ home with her friends, Deborah Howard and Zhanae Bassett, when she noticed what she first thought was fog outside the kitchen window. She soon realized it was smoke coming from Gray’s house, alerted her friends, and took off out the front door.

Luttrell and Howard each took an arm and helped Gray to safety in the nearby car of Jack Barton, who had pulled up in time to see Luttrell dashing across the street. Meanwhile, Bassett was calling 911.

“I was really glad to see those girls,” Gray said. “They got me to Jack’s car, and I just sat and watched the fire department. They got here really quick.”

The Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department was on the scene at 11:15 with 14 firefighters and eight units. According to Fire Chief Jeremy Powell, they found heavy smoke and flame showing from an attic vent on the north end of the home. An external attack was made thru the north attic vent while an entry team entered the home through the front door. The entry team aided by a thermal camera made entrance to the attic via an attic entry ladder in a hallway and directly attacked the fire suppressing it within minutes.

Fire damage was contained to the attic of the home with smoke damage affecting the entire home, Powell reported. Water damage was limited to a bathroom, hallway and bedroom underneath the area of the attic fire.

Gray said most of her possessions are salvageable, and she credits the fire department with saving her home.

The cause of the fire is under investigation at this time, but family members say they believe it may have been related to a heater in the bathroom ceiling.

Gray and the girls say God had a hand in saving her life and her home that day.

“I’m just glad we were out of class that day,” Luttrell said. “We were supposed to be in history, but it got canceled due to the weather. It was orchestrated by God. Our class, the snow, everything happened for a reason that day.”