BISHOPVILLE,
S.C. (AP) – Firefighter Brian Eargle is accustomed to
waking up to fight fires.
But Tuesday
night, Eargle said he was jerked from sleep by
coughing and quickly ended up having to fight a blaze at his own fire station.
Eargle managed to escape the fire, call for
help and drive two trucks away from the burning building. He then pulled a hose
from a fire truck parked outside to fight the blaze for about 10 minutes until
his fellow firefighters could arrive and get their equipment on.
The fire,
which started in the lounge of the station, did about $30,000 in damage, Lee
County Fire Chief Mike Bedenbaugh said.
But it could
have been a lot worse. Bedenbaugh said he is glad Eargle wasn’t hurt or killed and that he managed to save
the vehicles from the blaze.
“If this fire
had happened at any of our other stations, then we would have lost vehicles and
the entire building,” Bedenbaugh said. “This is the
only station where we have someone on duty 24 hours a day.”
The State Law
Enforcement Division is investigating the fire.
Information
from: The Item, http://www.theitem.com
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.