Fireworks in trash spark New Year’s Day house fire, North Carolina officials say
Fireworks thrown in a trash can sparked a destructive New Year’s Day blaze in North Carolina, officials say.
It was about 1 a.m. when Isai Marin awoke to a police officer knocking on the door of his Winston-Salem home, WXII reports.
That’s when he found out his house was burning and rushed to get his family out of danger, the station reports.
Video shows flames leaping into the air while smoke billows around the structure, according to a Twitter post from the Winston-Salem Fire Department. The fire left Marin’s family of six without a home, as the structure is probably a “total loss,” WXII reports.
“Right now I feel very sad because this happened on New Year’s and it’s just the way I am going to start the New Year with my house burned down,” Marin told WFMY.
Officials say the house burned after someone put used fireworks into a plastic trash can at the side of the house, according to the station.
The discarded fireworks, which were legal, met with combustible materials in the can, starting the blaze, WGHP and other news outlets report.
No one was hurt in the fire, which was ruled accidental, the Winston-Salem Fire Department says.
The house didn’t have working smoke alarms, officials say.
