Dismissal from BTMS was delayed by nearly 30 minutes this afternoon as a garage fire across the street closed Brier Road just north of the middle school. While fire officials reported no injuries, it appeared that at least two vehicles were a total loss as the detached garage burned.
“[We were able to] keep the fire just to their garage and make sure everyone got home safe today,” firefighter Anthony Casanas said. He explained that in most cases a garage fire like this would have also damaged or destroyed the home, but because it was a detached garage, the house was left untouched by the blaze.
A witness who was driving nearby, Dominic DeMiero, a 2014 Terrace alumnus and son of Terrace English teacher Vince DeMiero, called 911 after pulling over due to smoke covering the roadway. Realizing it was coming from a house, he saw a woman in distress who turned out to be one of the owners.
The woman said she was very concerned because her husband was still inside the garage.
“She said he was doing something in the garage, and I look and what’s fully engulfed is the garage and there are explosions like popping,” DeMiero said. The woman grabbed a fire extinguisher from the house and they attempted to put out the fire calling for the man inside. Shortly before the first officers showed up, the husband emerged from the garage.
“There was no shot [to control the fire] until the fire department came,” DeMiero said.
The firefighters were able to contain the fire within 20 minutes of arriving, keeping the main home completely untouched.
