Stanley Fire Chief urges electrical safety after two apartment fires

STANLEY, Va. (WHSV) - It’s been an unfortunately busy week for the Stanley Volunteer Fire Department. Firefighters responded to apartment fires on Monday and Tuesday that both caused over $40,000 in damage.

While there were no injuries in either fire, the Tuesday night blaze killed a dog. Stanley Fire Chief, Terry A. Pettit, said the two fires serve as an important reminder to practice fire safety measures in your home.

“The main issue here is that both causes were electrical. There are 40,000 fires caused each year in the United States by electrical, extension cords, power strips, and surge protectors. It’s important we check those all the time and make sure we don’t overload them,” said Pettit.

Pettit’s crews have determined the exact cause of the first fire and know that the second was also an electric fire.

“The first one was damaged on an extension cord possibly by mice or something like that. The second one we’re still into it but it’s very possible they could be an overloaded power strip or a power strip supplying a space heater, space heaters need to be supplied directly into an outlet and not by power strip,” he said.

Stanley’s volunteer fire department does offer a number of fire safety tips to the town.

“We offer advice to everybody in our community. Fire protection, we have fire protection programs, we have brochures on electrical fires or home safety, stop by the fire station and we’ll be glad to talk to you. We’ll be glad to pass this information out to you and we post it on our Facebook page as well,” said Pettit.

Pettit commended his volunteers for their quick and effective response to both fires this week.

“We have a great volunteer system here in Page County in the fire departments and rescue squads. The men and women both strive to do the training that is necessary and when things like this happen we have the best out there,” he said.

Pettit said that all three volunteer fire departments in Page County have a partnership that allows them to work together and handle larger fires like the ones this week.