Mondee Tilley/The News
Mount Airy firefighters work to extinguish a blaze at 1023 Spring St. Wednesday afternoon.
Mondee Tilley/The News
Jason Burkholder, assistant chief of Bannertown Volunteer Fire Department, busts out a window at a Spring Street home on Wednesday, in an effort to vent the upstairs of smoke.
A Wednesday afternoon house fire could have turned out for the worst, if it weren’t for an anonymous passerby who got the owner out of the home before he was injured.
Aldean Nunn got out of the hospital a few days ago, after a 21-day stay for cancer treatment. He was feeling weak and decided to lay on the couch for a nap when there was a loud knock on the door. Nunn said the man was telling him to get out of his house, and while at first he didn’t know what was going on, he quickly learned that his house was on fire.
Nunn said it was storming while he was on the phone with his wife and after he heard a loud lightning crack, he got off the phone and went to lay down in the front room of the two-story house at 1023 Spring St.
Nunn said he doesn’t know who called 911 or even who the good Samaritan was, but he sure would like to thank him.
Firefighters with the Mount Airy and Bannertown departments worked for hours to extinguish the blaze that started in the upstairs of the home.
Nunn said he and his wife, Crystal, had been working on another house across town where they were preparing to move soon. He said they sold the Spring Street house last Friday.
Nunn said he has insurance on the home, but was sad to see it going up in smoke. The couple had lived there for four years.
Because the couple was in the process of moving, there were few possessions in the home, according to Mount Airy Fire Chief Zane Poindexter.
The fire was ruled as an electrical over current, Poindexter said.
Three years ago in February, fire broke out in a house two doors down at 1009 Spring St. Just as in Wednesday’s fire, the resident, who was handicapped, was warned by strangers to get out of the house. They helped Juanita Hawks, who was wheelchair bound, to safety.
Tharrington first-grade teachers Jill Holder, Lisa Easter and Carol Joyce; Paul Watson, a parent; and Dustin York, a maintenance worker, were honored for saving Hawks’ life.
Reach Mondee Tilley at mtilley@heartlandpublications.com or at 719-1930.
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