September 10, 2010

Fire damages five homes after accident

      Karen Nichelson was sleeping when someone started pounding on her door.  At first she thought she was getting robbed. Then she heard a neighbor shouting for her and her husband to get out of bed because of a fire.  The Nichelsons immediately went outside and noticed smoke coming from the side of their home. Four other homes in her Center Grove area neighborhood were on fire, too, all because of a car that rolled down a hill.  A rolling vehicle damaged utility boxes, which sparked fires at five homes in Olive Branch Manor on Tuesday night.  No one was in the vehicle when it rolled and hit two mailboxes, a tree and three utility boxes, according to a Johnson County Sheriff’s Office report. The vehicle came to rest on an electrical utility box at 1360 White Ash Drive shortly after 9:30 p.m., according to the report.  When the car was moved, the utility box discharged electricity and set the vehicle’s engine compartment and front end on fire, the report said.  While firefighters put out the car fire, they noticed the electrical box at the house next door start to smoke. The north wall of that house, 1310 White Ash Drive, caught fire from the cable box that was attached to the home, the report said.  A sheriff’s deputy investigating found that small fires had started on the walls of the homes at 1322 White Ash Drive, 1284 White Ash Drive, 1397 Stansbury Court and 1298 Stansbury Court.

        About 40 firefighters from White River Township, Greenwood and Bargersville went to the neighborhood and put out the fires, said Jim Engmark, a spokesman for the White River Township Fire Department. At least seven homes in the neighborhood were evacuated, he said.  Two homes were damaged substantially by flames that started to burn inside, Engmark said. Damage estimates weren’t available, but the homes should be habitable, he said.  Firefighters had to peel back siding on the Nichelsons’ home to put out the fire, which had started burning through the wall.  She could see cables sparking as they were pulled from the siding by firefighters, Nichelson said.  Fortunately, firefighters doused the fire quickly enough to prevent widespread damage, she said. Only a portion of her siding was torn off.  A Duke Energy utility worker told sheriff’s deputies that electrical power most likely traveled from the damaged box through exposed wire and started the fires throughout the neighborhood.  The owner of the vehicle, Kyle Whitney of Greenwood, told the deputy he parked his car in the street while he visited a friend. He was sure he had put the vehicle in park because that is the only way to get the keys out. He did not know how the vehicle got put into the drive gear and began rolling, he told police.  A witness who was on a walk during the crash told the deputy he saw the vehicle cross the street and crash and that the vehicle was unlocked and no one was inside, the report said.  The sheriff’s office is investigating how exactly the car started rolling. Deputies don’t have any reason to doubt the driver, since witnesses spotted the vehicle rolling while empty, and the keys were not in the ignition, Chief Deputy Doug Cox said.  (Reprinted with permission from the Daily Journal)
   
     

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