Sam Pritchard stood across from her Pike Creek townhome Thursday afternoon, smoke hanging heavy in the air.
With her arms wrapped around her stomach, Pritchard’s eyes threatened tears as she glanced at her neighbor’s charred home, its roof demolished and smoke billowing from where the second story once stood.
“I feel like I’m gonna throw up,” Pritchard said, watching firefighters douse the structure with water. “I have nowhere to go.”
Pritchard is one of a handful of residents who were displaced on Thursday after a multi-alarm fire broke out just after 11:45 a.m. at the Fairway Falls townhome complex.
Four firefighters were injured, three of whom were taken to Christiana Hospital, said New Castle County Paramedics spokesperson Abigail Haas. Their injuries are all non-life-threatening, though at least one is in “serious” condition due to “the nature of his burns,” Haas said.
The cause of the fire and the exact number of displaced residents are not yet known, but the blaze drew a heavy response from first responders. They raced to the complex from across New Castle County and Pennsylvania after “mayday” was broadcast across the radio, meaning firefighters were trapped in the home as it collapsed.
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For a handful of first responders, the “mayday” call triggered memories of a 2016 blaze in Wilmington’s Canby Park neighborhood where three city firefighters were killed after a woman set the home ablaze.
“That’s always our worst thought,” Haas said. “We hope that we never see that again. (Thursday) could have been much worse, but everybody’s going to be able to go home to their families.”
Neighbors describe blaze as ‘terrifying’
While it will take some time before the State Fire Marshal’s Office determines where and how the fire started, neighbors said they were shocked by its intensity.
Pritchard said she’d been home in the morning and smelled something charred when she ran out to run an errand a little before 11:30 a.m., but she didn’t think much of it. Nothing looked amiss, she said.
When a neighbor called her around 11:50 a.m., she knew something was very wrong. Her mind immediately went to her father, who is wheelchair-bound.
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“I followed the paramedics that were headed over, put my hazards on and got here in like two minutes,” she said. “I’d told my neighbor to knock my door down to get my dad out, but firefighters were already bringing him out when I arrived.”
Pritchard was able to get her two dogs out of the home, but she couldn’t find her cats, Meeko and Donna.
As she stood across from her home in just a tank top Thursday afternoon, a look of worry crossed her face.
“They’re my favorite pets,” she said.
Other neighbors who were home when the fire started said it didn’t initially look like much. As the flames grew, however, it became “terrifying,” one resident said. She saw flames shooting out of the townhome and felt a level of heat she’s never experienced before.
She added that members of the community received only bits and pieces of information as firefighters battled the blaze, but heard that firefighters were trapped in the basement of the home.
Mill Creek Fire Company Deputy Chief Joseph Stewart said he could not confirm where exactly the men were trapped, but said they were rescued by fellow firefighters. The roof and several floors collapsed in the blaze.
It’s not yet clear whether neighboring townhomes suffered fire damage, but many had smoke and water damage. Pritchard said she was worried about what would happen to the home she’s leasing.
“I haven’t even called my landlord yet,” she said anxiously. “I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
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