LAUREL HILL –An early morning fire gutted two storage buildings off Rockingham Road on Wednesday.
The owners lost a lot of personal items, but no one was injured, according to fire officials.
Clyde Locklear, chief of Laurel Hill Fire Department, said firefighters arrived at the scene quickly, but the two storage buildings which had been joined together, were engulfed in flames.
“We got the call at 7:35 and were on scene at 7:42, and it was two-thirds gone by then,” Locklear said.
Seventeen firefighters from the Laurel Hill and Gibson Fire departments and the Forestry Service responded to the blaze.
A neighbor saw the fire, called 911, and alerted the owners, Mark and Latrona Blue. The couple, who are carriers for The Laurinburg Exchange, were out delivering papers when the call came.
Mark Blue said he had been burning trash Tuesday evening and thought he had put the fire out completely.
“I guess the wind got to it and started it back up,” he said.
He estimates his loss to be around $9,000, and Locklear estimated the damage to the buildings to be around $4,000.
Mark Blue said the buildings were full of household items along with lawn equipment as well as his family’s pool, trampoline, and two bicycles.
“Everything’s gone,” he said.
According to Blue, none of the family’s other property was in danger from the fire. His wife truck was parked near the building, but thanks to his neighbor’s call, he was able to move the vehicle before it was threatened.
Mark Blue praised the efforts of the firefighters.
“I appreciate what they did,” he said. “They got there and got things under control pretty quickly.”