ALERT TEEN HELPS NIP HOUSE FIRE IN THE BUD

Charlotte Observer, The (NC)
1995-07-13
Section: METRO
Edition: ONE - FOUR
Page: 2C

   DEBORAH PARKHILL MULLIS, Staff Writer

Pamela Prince still gets chills thinking about what could have happened if Stephanie Davis had not knocked on her door and told her the house was on fire.

``She delivered a message. It was a godsend - an absolute blessing,'' said Prince, who lives at 5401 Woodcreek Dr. in south Charlotte's Five Knolls neighborhood. She said Wednesday she debated whether to answer her door at 2 p.m. Tuesday. ``I'd never seen her before,'' she said. ``When she showed up I thought, Who is this person?' ``

Stephanie, 16, said Wednesday: ``I'm glad I could help. I hope somebody would do it for me. It wasn't anything special.''

Prince was in her art studio on the second floor when Stephanie rang the bell and told her the cedar siding at the rear of the house was on fire. Prince said a maid was in the house, too, cleaning an upstairs bathroom.

``The flames were about 5 feet high when I went through the back door,'' said Prince. ``All I could think was to grab the garden hose. Thank God it was hooked up.''

Prince sprayed water on the fire until the flames disappeared. Then she called 911. Firefighters at Station 24 on N.C. 51 responded. They checked the exterior siding and the interior walls to make certain the fire was out.

It was ``extremely lucky'' Stephanie happened by, said Capt. Dennis Blanton, because it was an outside fire and smoke detectors inside the house would not have activated until the attic was in flames. ``They would have had no warning,'' he said.

Blanton commended Stephanie for first notifying the occupants that they were in danger. ``That's the most important thing,'' he said.

``A few more minutes and the whole exterior of the back porch area of the house would have been on fire,'' he said, ``So much heat had gotten to the (kitchen) windows . . . they had broken.''

Prince said hot cigarette ashes inadvertently dumped into a plastic trash bag on her deck started the fire. The trash bag was filled with paper products. Damage included charred cedar siding and broken windows. There was no interior damage.

People just don't think about hot ashes from cigarettes, fireplaces or grills starting fires, explained Blanton. Any kind of cinders are likely to start fires, he said, especially if they drop onto wooden decks.

Stephanie was walking down Summergate Street on her way to feed a neighbor's cat when she saw the fire.

A rising senior at Charlotte Country Day, Stephanie works for Kerr Drug Store. Because she was working the 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. shift Tuesday, she was on her way to feed the cat at 2 p.m.

``Last week I fed the cat around 5 p.m.'' she said. 

Staff photo by DEBORAH PARKHILL MULLIS: Stephanie Davis, 16, holds a screen from the back window. That's as far as the fire got.