Fire fighters from four volunteer departments responded quickly and contained a fire to one store in the Pinehurst shopping center on Strickland Drive Wednesday morning. Pinehurst Fire Chief Shon Branham said the call came in at 7:13 Wednesday morning, and he was on the scene at the Dollar Tree store within five minutes.
Branham reported the quick response by first responders was able to contain the fire to the entry area of the Dollar Tree store where there were firebreaks which helped retard the fire before it was able to spread and could have threatened to do serious damage to other stores in the shopping center. Chief Branham said the smoke was intense which did serious smoke and soot damage to the merchandise in that one store.
Pinehurst had five fire fighters respond and were assisted by at least 10 other first responders from the Bridge City, Little Cypress, and West Orange volunteer fire departments. Branham indicated it was fortunate the fire did not occur two or three hours earlier when there would have been no personnel in the Dollar Tree to call it in quickly. Branham believes the fire had the potential to have caused extensive damage to more of the shopping center. Chief Branham praised all the fire fighters for their excellent response and work to prevent the fire from spreading to the other stores that are there.
Branham thanked the manager of the Dollar Tree for getting her four employees who were stocking merchandise out of the store safely and calling 911. The cause of the fire is still under investigation according to Chief Branham, but definitely appears to be electrical in nature. The chief also stated the Orange Fire Department would have been called had there not been such a quick response from the other departments.
All but four businesses were able to open for business Wednesday in the shopping center. Branham said the H & R Block office was closed Wednesday, but should be open Thursday. Mathews Jewelry told KOGT that they will be closed until at least Friday to allow restoration crews to clean up the store. The Kam Wah Restaurant was closed Wednesday and has some cleanup from smoke before reopening. The Dollar Tree will be closed for a longer duration because of the extensive smoke damage there.
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