Investigators began processing the scene of a fatal fire in Florence on Thursday morning– the second in a month for the Boone County community.
The call for a house fire came to central dispatch around 7:55 a.m. When firefighters arrived at the Kelley Drive home, Florence Fire Chief Rodney Wren said they saw black smoke billowing from every side of the two-story house.
“The condition of the fire was extreme when we arrived,” Wren said.
They quickly worked to rescue the residents and get the fire under control. One person died and two others were taken to the hospital. Wren said all of the victims were adults.
Florence Fire Battalion Chief David Dannemiller said it took the crew roughly 15 minutes to get the fire under control with the help of Burlington, Independent, and Union fire departments.
Black soot stains the windows and doorway, and the smell of smoke and charred material, still were noticeable from down the street hours after the fire was extinguished.
This marks the second fatal fire in a month and the third in two years in the county. Prior to 2020, the last fatal fire in Boone County was in 1983, according to the battalion chief. Connecting the last three incidents is the toll it takes on first responders.
Dannemiller said Thursday’s fire was on the same shift as the early morning fire that killed 16-year-old AJ Messmer in March. Messmer was rescued by firefighters from the basement of a house on Maher Road. From there, he and his younger brother were transported to the hospital, where Messmer succumbed to his injuries.
Rodney said firefighters frequently find people “on the worst day of their life,” and those scenes often stay with the firefighters.
“I drive these streets and I still think, ‘My first fire was here, my seventh fire was here,’” Dannemiller said.
“You don’t know which incident is going to be the one that wakes you up at night,” Chief Wren added.
The Florence Fire Department performs annual mental health checks on firefighters. In 2021, the Kentucky General Assembly passed a bill to provide funding for counseling and other means of mental health support to both full-time and volunteer fire departments in the state. But just because the help is there, doesn’t mean firefighters are going to take it.
“We’re still fighting the stigmas,” Wren said.
As for the house fire on Kelley Drive, Wren said more information would be coming soon in a press release from the Florence Fire Department.