Unattended stove blamed in Mossy Oaks house fire, death of 3 pets

A Mossy Oaks woman suffered smoke inhalation Thursday when she tried to rescue her three pets from her burning kitchen.

The fire heavily damaged her Battery Creek Road home, Beaufort Fire Chief Sammy Negron said. And investigators said the home’s stove likely caused the fire.

At about 3 p.m., the Beaufort-Port Royal Fire Department, assisted by crews from the Burton Fire District and Beaufort County EMS, responded to a report of a house fire on the 600 block of Battery Creek Road in Beaufort (map below).

Firefighters arrived to see heavy smoke and flames coming from the kitchen area of the single story home. A quick response is attributed to preventing the fire from spreading to other areas of the home.

A resident of the home who was trying to save her cats was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital after showing signs of smoke inhalation. Three pets died in the fire, despite attempts by responders to revive them.

Fire investigators ruled the fire was accidental and likely caused by an unattended stovetop range left turned on. Representatives from the Palmetto Chapter of the American Red Cross are providing assistance to the residents.

Residents should always check to be sure all stovetop ranges and other appliances are properly turned off, Negron said. He also warned against re-entering a structure that’s on fire: Nationally, more than two of every five (43 percent) people injured but not killed in home fires were trying to fight the fire or rescue someone or a pet, Negron said.

According to the National Fire Protection Association, cooking equipment is the leading cause of home fires and related injuries and is the third leading cause of home fire deaths in the United States.

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