Funeral Home Fire-WBTV
Funeral Home Fire-WBTV
Salisbury, NC-- Firefighters in Salisbury spent the afternoon battling a four alarm building fire.
According to WBTV, the fire was at the Lyerly Funeral Home along South Main Street. Crews received the first call around 12:20 p.m. and it was quickly upgraded to a four-alarm fire.
Funeral Director J. Brent Lyerly, told the station that the furnace was turned on Friday morning because the temperatures were low and it was chilly. The staff left to go to lunch and came back to find thick smoke and was barely able to get out of the building.
Lyerly said he believes there was some type of malfunction with the furnace which may have started the fire.
He says all bodies inside the funeral home were in caskets, which were closed. He says the staff won't know the condition of the bodies for a while.
Family members at the scene said the bodies of a pair of sisters who died on the same day were also inside the funeral home.
They say Effie Leazer Stiller, 91, and Marie Elma Leazer Miller, 84, both had services set for Saturday, with visitations set for Friday afternoon. They both died on Wednesday.
Nearly 100 emergency personnel were called to the scene to fight the blaze and the American Red Cross is also on sight to provide assistance. At least a dozen emergency vehicles responded to the fire.
Other funeral homes have reached out to offer Lyerly help.