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Because of the heavy smoke
and type of building involved, Fire
Chief Jerry Swift called in engines from
the Rolesville and Stony Hill fire
departments, a ladder truck from Raleigh
and Wake County EMS to augment the Wake
Forest department’s two engines, ladder
truck and air unit.
When he arrived, Swift said,
the smoke was so thick he could not see
the delicatessen from the street nor the
street from the delicatessen.
The fire started in towels
Laughinghouse had washed with detergent
and bleach at the laundry on Brooks
Street, dried, packed in a box and
stored in the basement.
Swift said the reaction of
the vegetable oil left in the towels,
the bleach and the heat from the dryer
started the spontaneous combustion in
the tightly packed towels that spread
into the floor, floor joists and
electrical system. The fire also burst a
PVC water line.
“It was spraying into the
basement and that kept it from spreading
real bad,” Swift said, but the water
flooded into The Cotton Company and
Choplin’s office.
Swift said the firemen were
on the scene for about six hours after
the call that went in about 6:30 p.m.
They had to cut into flooring and floor
joists to find the smoldering fire, move
stock at The Cotton Company to keep it
from damage and use mops, squeegees and
a sump pump to remove the water.
“The firemen were great,”
Elizabeth Johnson said. She and her
husband, Bob, own The Cotton Company and
the connected delicatessen. They were in
Henderson at a basketball game Friday
night, a game where their daughter Paige
sprained her ankle after a minute of
play.
Elizabeth Johnson said
Tuesday they still had to clean out the
HVAC ducts and the Event Gallery on the
second floor, but “We have extended our
sales and the deals are hot.”
Also, they have rescheduled
Art After Hours at The Cotton Company
for this Friday.
The delicatessen staff had
smelled smoke for a time but could not
locate a source until the smoke began
coming up through the floorboards. They
called the fire department, sent all the
patrons out and called Laughinghouse.
Laughinghouse said Saturday
he is covered by insurance and a
cleaning company began work at Over the
Falls Monday.
He wants to get out the word
that Over the Falls will reopen as soon
as possible.
Laughinghouse also referred
people to Mayor Vivian Jones to explain
the reaction of the oil, bleach and
heat.
She said a cousin is a fire
marshal in Asheboro. At a family reunion
about three or four years ago, he was
telling her and her sister, Jonnie
Anderson, about a fire where a couple
was suspected of arson. “He ended up
proving that a load of clothes had
started the fire.” Since then he has
investigated several other fires that
had the same cause and has trained
firemen and fire marshals to detect that
kind of fire.
Jones and Anderson, who live
downtown, were at the fire scene and
overheard the Wake County fire marshal
talking to Laughinghouse about the
towels and how he washed
them. |
