By Kathy Chaffin
Salisbury Post
Rowan County fire officials say the actions of a passerby and a neighbor may have saved the life of a Garrick Road man Friday.
Melvin Maxwell was driving toward Ridge Road around noon when he noticed smoke coming from under the eaves of a remodeled mobile home at 970 Garrick Road, according to Deborah Horne, fire inspector/investigator for Rowan County.
“At first, he thought maybe the smoke was coming out of a chimney,” Horne said, “but he quickly realized it was more smoke than would have been coming from a chimney, so he turned around.”
Maxwell pulled into a neighboring driveway and started blowing his horn. Debbie Morton called 911 and ran with Maxwell to the house.
They pounded on the smoking structure’s windows to wake the owner, Robert Veros, who works third shift at the Hefner VA Medical Center.
“All I heard is somebody yelling, ‘Your house is on fire,’ ” Veros said. “I owe them my life.”
Morton said she was afraid he wouldn’t wake up.
Maxwell thought he might be able to put out the fire with a water hose, according to Horne, “but quickly realized it was too late for that.”
Because the fire started in the ceiling, Horne said there wasn’t any smoke or fire in the house when Veros woke up. After he walked out the front door, however, the kitchen ceiling started falling in, and the fire quickly spread.
“It was really just a miracle that he was able to get out,” Horne said.
She believes the Lord sends people to places where they can be used, she said. “Today, he used (Maxwell), and I really appreciate that, and we told him so.”
Veros, who bought the home a year ago when he moved to Rowan County from Florida, lost everything in the fire. Horne said representatives of the Hanford-Dole Chapter of the American Red Cross were able to assist him.
Firefighters had the fire under control within an hour to an hour and a half, Horne said. “It took an extended period because there were double ceilings,” she said.
In remodeling the mobile home, she said, someone had put a second roof on top of the tin roof and a new floor on top of the old floor.
Horne said investigators with the Rowan County Fire Marshal’s office determined the fire stemmed from an electrical short in the ceiling.
Firefighters from Ellis Cross Country and Franklin departments responded to the initial dispatch, according to Ellis firefighter/EMT Chip Wells, who was in command at the scene.
Wells said he requested and received assistance from the Spencer, Woodleaf, Millers Ferry and Salisbury City departments along with the Jerusalem fire department in Davie County.
The Rowan Rescue Squad and the Rowan County Fire Marshal’s Office also responded.
Wells said the firefighters did a great job. “I would like to thank all the mutual-aid stations that came out today,” he said. “I’m really proud of our fire service in Rowan County.”
Horne agreed. “Every one of those firefighters did a phenomenal job,” she said.
One firefighter had to be treated at the scene for elevated blood pressure.
“This is a stressful job,” Wells said.
Contact Kathy Chaffin at 704-797-4249 or kchaffin@salisburypost.com.