Fire destroys portion of house

Jan. 28--Reba Bowman watched as smoke rose from her home on Brickyard Way west of Lenoir and firefighters worked to stop flames from spreading to consume it.

Bowman said the fire started in her adult granddaughter's bedroom, where an air conditioner unit had started smoking before catching on fire just after 1 p.m.

"My granddaughter woke up to it. It was a pretty new air conditioner," she said. "It wasn't even a year old."

Window glass was shattered, and the inside of the bedroom walls could be seen burnt black through a small window of the home.

Bowman's daughter, Windy Isaacs, said her 23-year-old daughter Jessica had been sleeping in the bedroom when she suddenly yelled that there was a fire in the room and for the family to get her wheelchair-bound grandfather out of the house.

"She yelled, 'My room's on fire, come here,'" Isaacs said.

Bowman said the fire had destroyed the bedroom and severely damaged another bedroom and the bathroom in an extension on the home. All of her granddaughter's and great-grandchildren's clothes were lost in the fire.

Chief Keith Owens of the Gamewell Volunteer Fire Department estimated there was $5,000 to $10,000 of fire and smoke damage to the home.

Isaacs said the family had used up two fire extinguishers and also used a garden hose to try to keep the fire from spreading before firefighters department arrived.

Bowman lives in her home with her husband, granddaughter and two great-grandchildren. Without fire insurance, Bowman said, she will have to figure out a way to come up with the money to rebuild the house extension.

"We've got no insurance or nothing on this place," she said. "Hopefully we can get a way to rebuild."

Reporter Briana Adhikusuma can be reached at 828-610-8724.

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