Thursday, July 27, 2017
The Highlander • 5A
Fire From page 1A the blaze, which was reported by a nearby resident who reported hearing gunshots about 2 a.m. Saturday. Deputies arrived on the scene to find all three vehicles fully engulfed in flames. Although the vans were owned by the church, it happened in a rear parking lot located behind a vacant restaurant just west of Community Bible Church that is located at 3465 Cashiers Road. The Highlands Fire Department and the Cashiers-Glenville Volunteer Fire Department both responded to the fire, and firefighters quickly knocked down the flames, and the fire was under control in just 11 minutes, said Highlands Fire Chief Ryan Gearhart. “We were there for a little more than an hour,” Gearhart said. “We got it under control then hit some hot spots.” The neighbor who called 911 said he heard “gunshots,” but Gearhart said those sounds were more likely made by exploding glass, tires or a fuel tank as the vehicles burned. “He called and said he wasn’t sure what was going on, and he called back and said it was a vehicle fire,” Gearhart said. “There are a number of things on a vehicle that will sound like gunshots when it’s burning.” Willis and Gearhart, along with Assistant Fire Chief Robbie Forrester and Michael Stoltzfus, the campus and media director for the church, were on the scene assessing the damage Monday morning. Willis was there to determine the cause of the fire and whether it was indeed arson as deputies believed. The buses, reduced to piles of burned up steel and melted fiberglass, were parked in adjacent parking spaces in the paved lot, and the 15-passenger van, its metal body still recognizable, was parked in another space about 21 feet
away, Willis said. All of the vans’ gas tanks were filled on Tuesday. The 15-passenger van was the last to burn and was last driven on Wednesday or Thursday. Willis said that, after seeing the extent of the damage, he couldn’t say for sure that the fire was started intentionally. “I’m not overly concerned at this time, based on what we’ve seen,” he said. He said a more likely explanation is that the fire started at the bus parked in the middle of the three vehicles, due to an electrical problem, possibly sparked by an electrical short or by mice chewing on wires. The flames then likely spread to the two vehicles parked on either side, first to the right, then to the van parked further away as fuel flowed along the downward slant of the pavement. Two utility trailers parked nearby were not damaged. “We use that lot to park the vans and our utility trailers so we don’t have to take up parking spaces in our lot on Sundays during the summer,” said Stoltzfus. “It’s not overflow parking for our congregation, but we keep them over there so our lot is available.” Willis said because of wet weather conditions the field of grass adjacent to the parking lot did not catch fire. “There could have been a pretty sizable grass fire,” he said. Willis said he couldn’t find any evidence that someone had been in the parking lot with the intention of starting the fire. Usually, detectives investigating an arson will find evidence such as bullet shells, pour patterns from a fuel being used to start a fire, or tire tracks indicating a hasty exit, Willis said. With no such evidence on the scene, the cause of the fire will be listed as “undetermined.” “Usually, you’ll have one area that’s obviously hotter than the others,” Willis explained. “It’s like when you burn a campfire, and you see the white ashes the next day.”
Faced with the news that arson wasn’t necessarily the cause of the fire, Stoltzfus said he’s relieved. “Absolutely, we are,” he said. “Now we don’t have to worry about the church being targeted, for any reason.” However, Macon County Sheriff Robbie Holland said with any investigation you must be meticulous. “Arson investigations are incredibly difficult because evidence is typically destroyed by the fire,” said Holland. “We are treating this investigation as worse case scenario until we are able to rule otherwise. Treating it any less serious could jeopardize this investigation or any pos-
sible criminal prosecution in the future related to it. At this point we have no evidence that can rule out ‘accidental’ so therefore we will continue to treat it as an open ‘arson investigation.’” The church purchased the vans in used condition last January. They’re used to transport the church’s youth groups and to help residents at the Eckerd Living Center get to church. The church is working with its insurer to replace the vans. “It will set us back,” said Stoltzfus. “Obviously they’re insured, and we’ve started that process already. Our youth are typically the people that use the buses. We’ve got about two or three weeks before we need transportation for them.”
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The vehicles were barely recognizable due to extensive damage to their fiberglass bodies.
Oil
and digging a well to access oil that may have formed a layer on top of ground water below. “We’re trying to catch it to keep it contained to the property right now, so it doesn’t go the oil from the water. downstream,” he said. “So far, The booms were placed in we’ve dug the soil up under the the creek at Horse Cove Road house, and now we’re trying — one set about ten feet upto get the sheen off the water. stream from a footbridge, the What we’re doing now is buildother just downstream to intering a well to go down and vaccept the remaining oil. uum the ground water where “Our folks met with Highthe oil is. To get where the water lands Fire to bring them some table is, the oil is floating on top supplies to mitigate the spill,” of that, and we want to vacuum he said. “We maintain some rethat off to get it before it gets sponse equipment here that we to the creek.” can bring out and minimize the A PVC pipe was inserted impact.” into the ground and stabiCabe said his office conlized with coarse sand, which tacted the State of North Carwould allow Walker to pull the olina Department of Environcontaminated water out of the mental Quality’s water quality ground. He said there’s no way division, who helped connect to tell exactly how much oil had seeped into the ground, but he said the 150-gallon oil tank was still about half full as he dug the well last Wednesday. “This is relatively small compared to some of them,” he said. “You don’t want to get it in the creek or anything like that, but it’s not like a catastrophic failure of some of the larger tanks.” He said his team would be revisiting Smallwood Avenue for Photo by Kelsey Reidle/staff the next couple of weeks as they Mountain Environmental Services set up a system of hose maintain the booms and pads. “A little bit of oil goes a long in a backyard on Smallwood Avenue to clean up oil that had leaked from a residential heating oil tank and into a wet way towards making a mess,” he said. weather drainage ditch.
From page 1A
the homeowner with Mountain Environmental Services, a Canton-based company that provides emergency environmental cleanup services. “Usually what happens is, with most of your government agencies, we’ll try to mitigate the spill and contain it,” Cabe said. “Any of the cleanup would be the homeowner’s responsibility.” David Walker, a project manager for Mountain Environmental, said the leak was serious, but not catastrophic. Walker’s crew found damage above ground, contradicting initial emergency management reports that the damage originated below ground. Walker and three other workers were at the scene last week, digging out contaminated soil
Mission From page 1A rent situation before Oct. 4 could be financially devastating for both Mission Health and patients using their facilities. BCBSNC insures more than 70 percent of insurance customers in North Carolina, which represents a significant portion of Mission’s privately insured patients. “Since nearly all hospitals, including Mission hospitals, lose money on Medicare, Medicaid and self-pay patients, we cannot accept a 0 percent increase from our largest commercial/managed care payor and expect to begin
to offset the rapid inflation we experience on drugs, supplies and medical devices, let alone provide salary increases to our excellent team members,” Gorby said. Meanwhile, Harris Regional Hospital and other Duke Lifepoint facilities will remain in-network for BCBSNC customers, and Borman said there will still be local coverage for customers requiring emergency care. “We would remind readers that in case of emergency, Blue Cross NC customers should go to the nearest hospital,” he said. “Emergency care is always covered as an in-network benefit. Prior authorization is never required for emergency care.”
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