By Harry Franklin
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
COLUMBUS, Ga. — A Columbus man was left homeless and was being treated at The Medical Center emergency room Thursday for facial burns he received when his house was destroyed in a Wednesday night fire.
Roy W. Jernigan, 55, of 6431 Buena Vista Road told fire investigators with Columbus Fire & Emergency Medical Services on Thursday that his water heater was out and he was heating water in a gas fish cooker in the bathroom around 7:30 p.m. to take a bath, said Sgt. Kevin Nixon.
“He walked out of the bathroom to the other side of the house,” Nixon said. “When he came back through, the fire had started somewhere in the bathroom. He got his dogs and got out. He had flash burns to his face.”
Jernigan said he worked at The Medical Center. He told investigators he had no insurance on the house, but that he did have somewhere to stay.
Nixon said the fire, which destroyed everything in the old frame house, is being labeled as accidental, a result of “careless use of a cooking appliance.”
Firefighters had a difficult time finding the house after receiving an initial report that it was a grass fire, said Chief Fire Marshal Thomas Streeter. There was no address marker to the house.
They had an even more difficult time getting water to the fire because the house was some 250 feet off Buena Vista Road down a narrow one-lane dirt driveway. Fire trucks had to park in an adjacent lot and pump water from trucks through hoses extended across a chain-length fence. By the time the trucks arrived, the house was engulfed and Jernigan had left, Nixon said.
The fire was too far from a fire plug, so firefighters used about 1,000 gallons of water hauled in by truck to put out the fire. Firefighters also had trouble seeing because of the darkness and difficulty maneuvering because of the rough surrounding terrain, Streeter said. They had to search the ruins to make sure no one was in the house. A fire truck and crew stayed through the night to keep an eye on the smouldering ruins and left about 10:15 a.m. Thursday.
Investigator Phillip Nolin said damage is estimated at $50,000 to the house and $10,000 to the contents.
Neighbors reported hearing several explosions or loud pops, investigators said. Jernigan went to a neighbor’s house and the neighbor called 911.