Around 4 a.m. on Wednesday, January 5, a fire broke out in downtown Ronceverte.
The Ronceverte and Fairlea volunteer fire departments and Greenbrier County Emergency Ambulance responded to the scene. A fire truck was parked in front of Ronceverte City Hall in order to combat the burning building behind it on Greenbrier Avenue.
Local Jessica Bender lives next to door to the building. Although she had some damage to her home, she was thankful to the fire departments for keeping everyone in the area safe.
“It was a very scary experience, but we’re thankful for the RVFD and glad that no one was harmed,” Bender said.
Photo courtesy of Hayley Dawn Bittinger |
Lewisburg Fire Chief Joe Thomas, on scene as a Fairlea responder, confirmed no one was injured in the incident. At first, there was concern for a missing person that could have been in the building, but the person was located elsewhere.
Photo courtesy of Jessica Bender |
Emergency responder Hayley Dawn Bittinger provided an account of the morning, thanking Lewisburg Hardee’s for providing food as the department fought the fire.
“This morning at approximately 4 a.m. while I was working at [Greenbrier County Emergency Ambulance], we were toned to a working structure fire in Ronceverte,” wrote Bittinger. “As everyone knows it was a pretty frigid and cold morning, and we had volunteer fire fighters out here fighting a fire and trying to keep it from spreading to other houses that were nearby. 911 contacted the Red Cross and they were trying to find somewhere to make some hot breakfast sandwiches and coffee for these men & women who were and had been working for about 3 hours at this time. [They] couldn’t find anyone that was willing, until finally they contacted Lewisburg Hardee’s and they accepted. The staff was awesome when we went in and told them what all we needed and made it in no time with no complaints! Everyone on scene was very thankful and I’m glad that we have some businesses in our community who will go above and beyond in situations like so!”’
Photo courtesy of Hayley Dawn Bittinger |
The house sat just behind Ronceverte City Hall. |
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