Call volume and training over the past seven days has put our crews through the ringer.
Starting on Wednesday February 19th, we responded to multiple vehicle crashes along Interstates 85 and 40. These incidents began when snow fall made travel conditions difficult and lasted until well into the morning of February 20th. The largest wreck involved 56 damaged vehicles that had to be towed away, approximately eight people that had to be transported to nearby hospitals and unfortunately one person lost their life. Firefighters extricated the victims, treated and triaged patients, assisted the towing crews, blocked off the interstate to prevent more wrecks and at one point used a leaf blower to clear snow .
Over the weekend, crews responded to a woods fire that required deploying the department Polaris in order to access and extinguish some hot spots around the burned area. While on that call, they were dispatched to a structure fire on Tulip Tree Road. Fortunately, it was not a structure fire and could be quickly extinguished.
On Sunday, crews responded to another structure fire on Harper Road. Thanks to the quick action by the homeowner and firefighters, damage to the structure was minimal.
On Monday, crews responded to a third structure fire on Upper Street just south of town. Unfortunately, this fire did more damage and the building had to be vacated but there were no injuries.
All of these calls came in as crews were still responding to wrecks, medical emergencies and fire alarm activations.

Today, we hopefully capped off the busy period of the last seven days by completing live fire training on NC 57 north of town. The acquired structure was burned in a controlled setting to give firefighters some hands on training that they can use to reduce and or prevent loss of life and property when emergencies happen.

If you have questions or want to know more about what firefighters do, stop by one of our stations and take a tour. Our department has existed in some way since 1937. We are thankful for the people past and present that make us successful and have given us the tools and capabilities to serve our citizens.

We are here for you but hope that you never really need us.