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Smoke detectors urged after Spotsylvania fire
Fire officials going door-to-door to install smoke detectors in wake of fatal fire last month.Date published: 2/3/2006 Spotsylvania County fire officials have gone door-to-door in Sylvania Heights this past week installing smoke detectors in the wake of a fatal blaze there. Curtis Lee "Buzzy" Young Jr., 73, died in a fire Jan. 26 at his home on 187 Bend Farm Road. There was no smoke detector in his two-story wood house, said Assistant Chief Don Taylor of the Spotsylvania Department of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services. Taylor said the fire, which was called in about 8:45 p.m., started when cigarette ashes ignited a couch in the man's living room downstairs. Fire officials have ruled it an accident. Taylor said there was already heavy fire showing when firefighters arrived about 10 minutes after getting the call. Emergency personnel were able to drag Young outside, but he was already dead. Taylor said it appeared that Young had tried to get out, but that he was overcome by the smoke. Young lived there alone, and nobody else was injured. The house was destroyed. Taylor said that was the second fire in the Sylvania Heights area in the past several months. The other was next door at 183 Bend Farm Road; firefighters contained it to the front porch. That same home suffered minor heat damage during the Jan. 26 fire, Taylor said. Some of its vinyl panels melted. Taylor said there are many older homes without smoke detectors that are close together in Spotsylvania's Sylvania Heights area, which is off Routes 2 and 17 near the intersection of Lansdowne Road. He said the Spotsylvania fire department has gotten grants to buy smoke detectors, and there is also money for such purchases in the budget. Taylor urged everybody to have a smoke detector at home and to change its batteries twice a year. Firefighters have taken boxes of detectors around Sylvania Heights and have installed them in homes where they're needed. Taylor said people who don't have detectors, and who can't afford or install them, can contact their local fire station to get one. To reach BILL FREEHLING:
Read more stories about Spotsylvania Date published: 2/3/2006
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