Burton firefighter injured while battling ‘suspicious’ house fire

BURTON, S.C. (WTOC) - A Burton firefighter was injured while battling a “suspicious” house fire early Tuesday morning.

According to the Burton Fire District, the firefighter received minor injuries at a house fire at Parris Island Gateway and Broad River Boulevard. The firefighter was treated at the scene by Beaufort EMS and has returned to duty.

Burton Fire District says when they arrived to the scene around 1:30 a.m., the home was fully involved in flames. They say the home is a total loss.

Firefighters were able to quickly bring the fire under control, however it took them almost an hour to put out the flames because it was a wooden home.

“This is an older style home, and the fire had a really good hold of it before we got here so it took about an hour to extinguish it,” Burton Fire Assistant Fire Chief Capt. Daniel Byrne said.

Firefighters also had to extinguish spot fires in the trees and brush around the area including across the street which were started by flying embers.

“The fire was hot enough and putting enough embers up in the air that we actually had spot fires as far away as across the street,” Capt. Byrne said.

The occupants were not home at the time, but Burton Fire said they returned on Tuesday morning.

“They seem to be doing OK. We asked if they needed Red Cross assistance and at first they thought they did but they wound up going to stay with some family. It was possibly one adult male, possibly two adult males that lived in the home,” Capt. Byrne said.

Burton fire investigators have determined the fire to be suspicious and are working with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office investigators to determine the cause.

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