KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. (WAVY) — Three people were killed and three others were injured in a fire overnight in Kill Devil Hills.
Town officials say it broke out around 2:25 Friday morning at a vacation home in the 1800 block of North Virginia Dare Trail near the Jolly Roger restaurant.
Video sent into WAVY by Christopher Forshey shows the one-level home fully engulfed as firefighters worked to control it.
Firefighters were able to contain the fire mostly to that home and get it extinguished, but say three people died and three others required medical treatment. Two were airlifted to Sentara Norfolk General.
“It’s terrible. It’s horrible to be on vacation. and to think that you didn’t live. It’s awful,” said Mardane McLemore of Suffolk, who owns a summer home a few doors away on what many call Beach Road.
Another neighbor who lives nearby went through a housefire of her own several years ago.
“It’s heartbreaking to me,” said Evelyn Rollason. “When I see something like that it makes me really grateful and I know how lucky I was. God was looking out for me that night, but I really do feel for these people. It’s a tragedy.”
Adjacent homes on both sides were also damaged. Robert Coleman owns the home immediately to the South, and it sustained so much fire and water damage that it had to be condemned.
Coleman has a theory about what happened. He believes a propane tank exploded.
“(The owner of ) the Jolly Roger restaurant, her husband woke up and heard an extremely loud boom. And they live all the way up on Fifth Street, so it was a big boom,” Coleman said.
The cause of the fire is still unknown at this time, and officials have not released the names of the victims. They do believe they were from Maryland based on the license plates outside.
In the meantime, NC 12 is closed from Fifth Street to 3rd Street as crews remain at the scene.
