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Cooking led to recent fire, authorities say

By LEE WILLIAMS
lwilliams@TheCitizenNews.com

A cooking fire is what fire officials say sparked a blaze that gutted the kitchen of a home on Banks Road this month.

Owners Roy and Barbara Hand of 285 Banks Road were not home when the fire broke out about 4:45 p.m. Aug. 22. They returned to find their home ablaze.

“The fire started in the kitchen from food cooking on the stove,” said spokesman Capt. Pete Nelms of the Fayette County Department of Fire and Emergency Services.

Bobby Nipper, 65, who runs Banks Vineyard, a fresh fruit stand across the street from Hands’ residence, said the family was cooking okra, but left the home to check on another property.

Nipper said the owners told him they thought they turned the stove off before they left.

Nelms couldn’t say if the family was cooking okra and if that was the food item that started the fire.

Roy Hand shrugged off a reporter’s questions about the okra when asked about the cause of the blaze at the scene. A younger family member mentioned another food item might have been on the stove when the fire started.

The fire damaged a portion of the home, forcing the couple to relocate until the 40-year-old brick home is repaired.