Investigation underway after fire destroyed multiple homes on Bald Head Island
BALD HEAD ISLAND, NC (WWAY) — A fire on Bald Head Island, so large it could be seen across the water from Southport, destroyed four homes on Saturday. A strong wind caused the blaze to spread at a rapid rate.
Multiple agencies responded to a fire near the lighthouse landing area of bald head island around 8pm on Saturday.
Three units in Lighthouse Landing, and one home on North Bald Head Wynd were severely damaged by the flames.
No one was inside the homes at the time of the fire.
Bald Head Island’s Chief of Public Safety, Alan May, said thanks to a mutual aid response plan Bald Head Island Public Safety personnel along with crews from Boiling Spring Lakes, Carolina Beach, Kure Beach, Leland, Oak Island, Southport, Sunny Point, Winnabow, and the U.S. Coast Guard were able to fully contain the fire around 1 a.m. EMS crews from Brunswick County and St. James also responded.
“We had a good response from all the agencies, showing that the mutual aid plan really worked, and we needed it. We have six people that originally responded and to handle four houses that were fully engulfed, there was going to be a significant danger to them, danger to the people, and the surrounding areas, and we had to keep the fire contained,” said Alan May.
A fireguard remained on the scene to monitor the area.
May said the Brunswick County fire marshal, SBI, and Office of State Fire Marshal are investigating the cause of the fire.
“They’re trying to contact the individual home owners, working on getting consent to go inside the house to actually do a very detailed investigation as far as the origin of the fire or any type of accelerants. Just any information at all on something that was not usual, so they’re looking into that aspect, as far as the timeline goes, right now there’s a lot of damage, and it’s going to take a real long time to sift through it and really determine where exactly the fire started,” said May.
Some firefighters had minor injuries from fighting the fire, but there were no casualties in the incident.
