Vehicle fire at Walmart Tuesday sends local firefighters scrambling
West Jefferson Vol. Fire Dept., along with West Jefferson Police, responded to a vehicle fire in the local Walmart parking lot just after 5 pm Tuesday afternoon.
Fire Chief Eric Miller said the fire started in the engine compartment of a truck. "I was out of town at the time and arrived on the tail end of it," he said. "But our guys were on the scene within minutes of getting the call and had it under control quickly. Three other vehicles were damaged during the incident, but the truck was pretty much burned up," Miller said.
The fire department uses a foam agent to contain vehicle fires."We carry it on all of our trucks and it goes through our hoses just like water," he said. "It works really fast and really well."
West Jefferson Police Officer David Farmer said the owner of the F-150 truck was William Maxwell of West Jefferson. "When I arrived on the scene, he had apparently been inside the store and was coming out, toward his truck. The other three vehicles were damaged mostly by the heat and smoke," the officer said.
In an unrelated side note, Fire Chief Miller said he would
like to remind everyone to change the batteries in their smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors sometime during the next few days. “When the time changes in the spring and fall (daylight saving time ends Nov. 7 at 2 am), it’s always a good time to do this and make sure your detectors are working properly.”
Photos by Rick Ashley
