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Local News
Fire chief loses house to fire He was fighting eastern wild fires when his home here burned down By Eddie Fitzgerald | Daily Times Staff Writer FARMVILLE -- A Stantonsburg volunteer firefighter who was in Hyde County helping fight the huge wildfire that is burning in that part of the state, had to suddenly leave when he was informed his own home caught on fire Monday morning. Stantonsburg Fire Chief Brandon Epps had been in Hyde County since Friday along with fellow Stantonsburg firefighters John Perry, Kevin Dewer and Tony Pipkin, when he was awakened at about 3:30 a.m. Monday and told he needed to call home. "When I called home, I got the bad news and packed up," said Epps, who has been fire chief in Stantonsburg for nearly two years and a Stantonsburg volunteer firefighter for about six years. After getting a call for assistance last week from the Wilson County emergency manager's office, Epps and his fellow firefighters drove a Stantonsburg fire truck to Hyde County. They were helping protect residential homes close to the fire line and flooding woodlands to drown the fire that had grown to 45,000 acres by the time they got there. "It was pretty bad," Epps said. He didn't know at the time, but fire was preparing to play another major role in his life. An hour before he was awakened Monday morning, the fire alarm in his Farmville home at 4273 Belcher St. went off. His wife, April, ran out of the house with their 15-month-old son, Landon. April Epps' mother, Nancy Johnson, lives with the family. She escaped the blaze too. The house is a duplex. The Epps live in unit B. April Epps' sister, Jennifer Johnson, lives in unit A, where the fire started. She was not home during the fire. April Epps said a few things in her family's unit might be salvageable, but her sister lost everything. "We've had her for eight years and she was like a baby to my wife," Epps said. "She was tore up about it." When Epps, who works at Wilson Milling, saw his house totaled, black from the fire and smoke, he said he couldn't believe it. "You never think it is going to happen to you," he said. Rodney Dancy, Wilson County Emergency Management preparedness coordinator, who organized the deployment of Epps and other firefighters to the wildfire in Hyde County, said it was a shame Epps had to return to his own house fire. Dancy was the one who contacted Hyde County to inform Epps about the fire. Dancy said Epps and the Stantonsburg firefighters were one of three units sent to Hyde County after the state Fire Marshal requested help to battle the wildfire. Volunteer firefighters from Sims and Silver Lake left June 7 and returned June 11, and a request was issued Monday night asking for volunteers to deploy back to the wildfire for five to seven days, Dancy said. Epps, who had to take Tuesday off from his job in Wilson to look for another home, said he was not sure what caused the fire but it appeared to be an electrical malfunction in a wall socket. The Farmville Fire Department is still investigating it, he said. "It is bad, totaled," Epps said. "But I'm just pleased I was able to be in Hyde County helping where I could, and no one was hurt here at home." eddie@wilsontimes.com | 265-7820
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