Fire claims life on Turners Bend
The 67-year-old victim is found near a wheelchair.
A Coosa man, identified as Walter Elrod, 67, lost his life Friday evening in a fast burning house fire at 208 Turners Bend Road. Firefighters were seen coming out of the house throwing their gloves to the ground in front of the house in anger after finding Elrod’s body near his wheelchair in a front room.
Fire Chief Troy Brock said the victim’s body was in a room where the worst of the fire damages appeared to have been centralized.
Battalion Chief Brad Beall said Randy Lacey, from Cave Spring, was on his way to a function at Coosa High School and was able to give the first-responding units who were still on their way to the scene a heads up on the nature of the fire.
Beall said Lacey was also told by neighbors who had started to gather that Elrod may have been in the house.
After getting that report, Battalion Chief Roger Haggard immediately called for additional units to respond to the blaze. The nearest fire hydrant was at North Oreberg Road and fire pumpers had to be spaced out to relay hoses to the house.
When the first responding engine
companies got to the scene fire was leaping out of windows on the north end of the house and heavy smoke was billowing through the eaves of the house. Beall said there were remnants of oxygen set up in the area that sustained the most damage. “Oxygen dramatically increases fire, so I think that unit probably became involved and accelerated the fire in that room,” Beall said.
Beall said firefighters also found the bodies of two small dogs in the home.
Fire investigator Mary Catherine Chewning said the fire started from a faulty extension cord in a bedroom.