Fires claim homes, lives

Residents escape with their lives and little else from the blaze on Oneonta Avenue, which was one of Raleigh's biggest fires ever. Firefighters planned to work through the night to put out hot spots

Fire destroyed 27 homes and damaged 11 in a North Raleigh subdivision Thursday with ferocious, wind-driven speed that forced people to leave their possessions and run for their lives.

"I'm blessed," said Juanita Williams, 18, whose family lost their car, clothes and home. "I was asleep, and my mom woke me up. If she hadn't been there, I wouldn't be alive."

Nobody died, but the American Red Cross said at least 26 families were homeless or displaced. Assistant Fire Chief Tommie Styons said Thursday that the cause remained "a $50 question."

The air in Pine Knoll Townes stank from burned siding, cars were scorched khaki and smoke hung like an acrid fog.

The fire, one of the biggest in Raleigh's history, came on top of two others in the Triangle in which five people died. An early-morning house fire in Durham killed an adult brother and sister. As Pine Knoll burned, an apartment exploded near the WakeMed Raleigh campus. A man, woman and child died.

By midafternoon, the black smoke billowing from Pine Knoll could be seen in Wake Forest. Firefighters from all over Raleigh were racing to the neighborhood. Styons said she was roused at her house, where she was home sick.

"We had the manpower to manage it, but it had a head start," Styons said. "It's heartbreaking. It's devastating. It's not what we're used to around here. It's more like what you see out west," added Styons, who repeatedly compared the fire to California wildfires driven by 30- to 40-mph winds.

The National Weather Service issued a warning Thursday night until midnight that conditions were conducive to intense fires in 31 North Carolina counties, including the Triangle. The red-flag warnings are issued during periods of high winds and dry weather.

Today's forecast calls for sunny weather with a high near 55 degrees and wind gusts as high as about 25 mph.

'Oh God, oh God'

Just before 3 p.m. Thursday, Oneonta Avenue was quiet enough for residents to nap, eat or talk on the phone.

Then neighborhood residents and workers say they heard popping.

"When I came outside, I saw fire everywhere," said Cedrick White, 28, who was restacking a bookshelf in his house at 3504 Oneonta Ave. "We could hear these loud popping sounds. I just kept praying, 'Oh God, oh God, oh God.' "

Soon people were scrambling throughout the half-built neighborhood of townhouses. Workers jumped in trucks and drove away. Residents grabbed pets and ran.

Firefighters said they first heard about the fire at 3:02 p.m. It wasn't until about an hour and a half later that they had it under control. They were still working Thursday night to put out remaining hot spots.

"We'll be here all night, I'm sure," Styons said.

Investigators said they planned to work continuously to figure out what sparked the fire.

"In this wind," Styons said, "it could have started anywhere and just climbed."

A blast like a bomb

As the fire was starting, Andrew Lassiter and two co-workers were returning from lunch. Lassiter, who works in the subdivision as a laborer, said he saw pipes burning in a yard.

"I was scared," Lassiter said. "Even though half of the houses aren't ready, a lot of people are living in those places."

Lassiter also said he heard an explosion that left his ears ringing. It sounded like a bomb, he said.

Styons said the fire did not appear to have been set intentionally but that it would be inappropriate to speculate.

Angie Townsend, a spokeswoman for the natural gas company Public Service North Carolina, said there was no evidence to corroborate accounts of an explosion.

Fires all around

As the flames grew on Oneonta Avenue, gusts exacerbated by the warm weather started spreading sparks. The fire jumped the avenue, forcing firefighters to work on both sides of the street.

Black smoke covered the neighborhood and brought traffic on nearby Capital Boulevard to a standstill.

"It was so dark you couldn't see the cars in the parking lot," said Tony Gurley, a Wake County commissioner who owns a medical supply store nearby.

Brush fires started up to a quarter-mile away from the neighborhood. The fire even jumped Capital Boulevard and charred a vacant lot near a shopping center.

Everything lost

As their neighborhood smoldered Thursday evening, Pine Knoll residents gathered at a Red Cross station at a nearby Comfort Suites hotel.

As they searched for answers, they wondered aloud about the construction workers and the quality of their homes.

They also talked about the things the fire consumed.

"We lost everything," said Dorothy Williams, who moved into the neighborhood in December with her daughter Juanita and the rest of her family. "I don't even have my driver's license."

(Staff writers Michael Biesecker, Kinea White Epps, Sam LaGrone, Jay Price and Marlon A. Walker contributed to this report.)