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Christa Lane house fire blamed on fireworks

April 30, 2012|By Mike Moore | mmoore@jessaminejournal.com

Photo by David Johns, Nicholasville Fire Department

The “careless use of fireworks” by teenagers at a Nicholasville residence caused a house fire at 209 Christa Lane in the Orchard subdivision Sunday around 1:30 p.m., according to a fire department incident report.

Nicholasville firefighters arrived at the house and found heavy smoke coming out from three sides of the building, including flames emanating from the garage area of the house.

The fire extended to both cars that were parked in the driveway.

“I don’t know if they were supervised or not, but this is just another example of the hidden dangers of fireworks, and a lot of people underestimate them,” deputy fire chief Kevin Baker said. “These people lost their vehicles and their house and all of that because of fireworks.”

When fire crews entered the house to begin battling the blaze, they encountered “thick, black smoke with zero visibility,” the fire report read.

According to witnesses, the fireworks detonated on the exterior of the house, entered the garage, which started the fire. The blaze was further fueled by cans of gasoline and other flammable liquids stored in the garage.

Jason Kendrick lived at the home, according to the report. Kendrick and two other people inside the house got out of the home safely, and there were no injuries reported in the blaze, Baker said.

After the fire was under control, firefighters determined that the blaze spread to the house’s attic, garage and kitchen areas.

The fire department was on scene for two and a half hours, according to the report.

Firework safety

Sunday’s blaze was the second fire in the city this year caused by fireworks. In late March, fireworks set off inside a house caused a blaze that damaged a home, according to a Nicholasville fire incident report.

The Nicholasville Fire Department responded to a house fire at 513 Pinoak Drive around 9:20 p.m. March 31, and found smoke coming out of a bedroom window at the residence.

According to the report, fire and police officials interviewed the home’s occupants afterward and discovered that “the occupant’s brother was intoxicated and had ignited an unknown type of firework inside the dwelling with the intent to scare another occupant.”

Baker said in both cases, simple firework safety protocols would have prevented the fires.

“Fireworks are dangerous; it’s something that a lot of people don’t take serously,” Baker said. “We have had here in recent history a couple fires related to (fireworks) here in town.”

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