Rankin County firefighters quickly extinguished a house fire on Garrett Road Monday afternoon.
Emergency Operations Director Mike Word said when units arrived at the home, there was fire showing “from the floor to the ceiling” inside the garage area. One of the first firefighters on the scene was able to go through the home and pull an interior door shut in the area that was on fire, effectively choking the flames since they couldn’t get additional oxygen.
“That interior door closed by that firefighter made all the difference in the world,” Word said. “Compartmentalizing the fire really made a huge difference. The guys did a real good job.”
Firefighters then ventilated the rest of the home, where there was very little damage aside from where the fire occurred.
Firefighters took the hose in the front door to attack the fire, and “I went to pull the garage door off with the winch on my truck and the fire was out before it hit the ground,” Word said.
Word said the situation could have been a lot worse.
“Anytime you’re that far out in the country in the rural part of the county around this time of day, it’s usually a bad deal,” he said. “But they were johnny on the spot.”
Word noted that several of the firefighters had just finished Volunteer Firefighter Certification, which was held a few weeks ago at Rankin EOC.
