PICKENS COUNTY, Ga. – On Aug. 17, Pickens County Fire was dispatched to a residential structure fire with an explosion at 2:30 p.m. on Hwy. 53 West near Ludville.

The First unit to arrive on scene reported heavy fire with visible signs of an explosion.

A follow-up reported that there was an occupant that managed to get out of residence and was severely injured.

EMS personnel initiated patient care and Air Life Three was immediately requested for air transport to transfer patient to a trauma center.

Fire crews deployed multiple attack lines to begin fire suppression.

Suppression efforts become very exhaustive on fire personnel with concerns of heat exhaustion.

Fire personnel remained on scene approximately four hours to completely extinguish the fire.

Mutual aid was requested from Cherokee County Fire & Emergency Services and Gilmer County. One occupant was  severely injured, and one firefighter was transported to medical facility with signs/symptoms of heat exhaustion. The units that responded to the scene were Hinton VFD, E-60, E-63, E-11, E-12, E-50, Med-11, Battalion 11, BSFD VFD Rehab-8, 1101,1121, FM-1, FM-2, CCFES E-12, T-18.

Approximately forty-five minutes into the West Pickens fire, a second residential structure fire was dispatched at 3:15 p.m. in the Marble Hill Area on Old Harbin Road.

First arriving units found the home fully involved with fire with some collapsed.

Automatic Aid was received from Big Canoe Fire and Mutual Aid again was requested from Cherokee County due to reduced resources on first incident.

The fire was contained, however the home was a total loss.

The home was reported by neighbors as being vacant for a while. There were no civilian or firefighter injuries with this incident.

The units worked the incident approximately 3 hours. Responding units were E-20, Tender-2, E-90, Med-2, Med-5, FM-2, CCFES E-2, L-21 Battalion-3, BSFD VFD E-81.