Fire-Rescue responded to two building fires Saturday morning 31-January. The first was received at 1107 AM reporting a grass fire at 11071 Combahee Road near Hendersonville. Within minutes callers to 9-1-1 reported a storage building on fire at the location and advised the grass fire was rapidly moving toward a mobile home. A full structural response was assigned, bringing four fire stations and additional firefighters to the scene. Engine 8 arrived within minutes reporting an approximately two acre, fast moving grass fire in a broom straw field with an approximately 20’x20’ storage building fully involved. Firefighters positioned their equipment to protect the mobile home and were successful in preventing the fire from reaching the structure. A Forestry tractor also responded and contained the remainder of the grass fire. The storage building was destroyed.

Twenty minutes later at 1127, while units were working the Combahee Road fire, Fire-Rescue was alerted to a second structure fire at 211 Sixth Street east of Walterboro. Engine 19 arrived about six minutes later to find a singlewide mobile home well involved, with approximately 60 % of the building already destroyed. The homeowner had gone to the store and returned to find his house on fire. The home was located behind another mobile home, which could have

 contributed to no one spotting the burning building. Firefighters used two handlines to knock down the fire. They were able stop any extension of the fire, however the family lost everything in the building. The mobile home was mostly destroyed by the fire and what was left standing was gutted. No one was injured and the family had no insurance. The American Red Cross and Colleton United Way are assisting the family. The fire appears to have started in the area of a space heater near the center of the structure.

Stations 1, 8, 13 and 25 were assigned to the Combahee fire. Battalion Chief Richard Sheffield served as Incident Commander.

Stations 1, 12, 19 and 24 were assigned to the Sixth Street fire. Firefighter-EMT-I Justin Warko served as Incident Commander.