STAFF PHOTO BY SUSAN US! ;r?
A mv WAS wrnFrcrv ni vvvn v s u. u u ., u- u ^ " swanni ca.n BRUNSWICK COUNTY FIRE MARSHAL CECIL LOGAN (right foreground) and Calabash Fire
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Man Recovering From Burns
Sustained In Friday Blaze
A man who returned to a burning building Friday
night to retrieve his wallet remained in the bum ccnter
at N.C. Memorial Hospital at Chapel Hill Tuesday in
good condition.
Jesse Best Sr. was inside the abandoned four-room
house on No. 5 School House Road near Thomas boro
Friday night when fire broke out and rapidly engulfed
the frame structure. He ran out, but returned for the
wallet, Firefighters said later.
"He was in the driveway when we got there," said
Jerry Prince, chief of the Calabash Volunteer Fire
Department. "He was bumed from the waist down with
First and second degree bums. His left leg was severely
bumed. His face and arms were covered with blisters."
Best was transported by Calabash Emergency Medical
Service to The Brunswick Hospital, transferred to New
Hanover Regional Medical Center and then to the bum
center. "His son (Jesse Best Jr.) came up while we were
there and went with him to the hospital," said Prince.
N.C. Memorial Hospital public affairs spokesman
Liz Baker described Baker's condition as "good"
Tuesday, which means his vital signs were stable and
within normal limits and that he was conscious and
comfortable, with indicators excellent.
Prince said the building where Best was staying was
destroyed. "The house was of fat lighter. It was totally
engulfed when we got there," he said
Calabash and Sunset Beach firefighters responded to
the 7:50 p.m. fire call, which came in while the two de
partments were involved in a training program at the
Sunset Beach fire station.
The fire is still under investigation, but may have
started from a heater Best had in the building. "We hon
estly don't know how it started," said Princc. "It was so
hot when we went back everything was burnt so much
you couldn't tell what was what."
The house had been abandoned and was used mainly
for storage, Prince said hut Best was known to stay
there occasionally.
One room was a gathering place, while the other
main room was used for storage of a variety of items,
including a car transmission that blew up in the fire.
Fire Contained
Mid-morning Friday, Sunset Beach, Calabash and
Ocean Isle firefighters put out a fire at Seaside in a sea
sonal home owned by William Pamcll of Louisburg.
A Brooks Acres neighbor, George Hoover, was out
side working in his yard when he spotted the fire.
"I saw it through the window. Flames were just
shooting up. I knew if we didn't gel something in there
soon there wasn't going to be anything left," he said.
His wife, Margie, said she grabbed a new water hose
while another neighbor called the fire department and
ran to the home of a fire department member who lives
in the same neighborhood. They broke out the window
of the bedroom addition where the fire started and were
spraying water on the flames when firefighters arrived.
Capt. Keith Logan of the Sunset Beach VFD said the
fire was contained to the one room, with extensive
smoke damage throughout the two-bedroom residence.
Brunswick County Fire Marshal Cecil Logan, who
assisted in investigating the fire, said an elcctrical short
in a bedside lamp apparently caused the fire in the un
occupied house.
Radio Abuse Prompts Clegg
To Order Two-Day Shutdown
BY TERRY POPE
County Manager David Clcgg sent a memo to department heads last
week just to clear the air, literally.
An "interdepartmental squabble" over the airwaves prompted Clegg
to order employees to turn off county-owned two-way radios for all but
emergency services. The communications shutdown wasn't a punish
ment, he said, but gave employees a chance to think about how two-way
radios should be used.
"It appalls me that I have to waste my time with people playing on
the radio," Clegg said. "Wc have too many important things to do."
Operations Services Director Darry Somcrsett approached Clegg
last Wednesday afternoon to complain about county employees from
two departments tying up the county's communication band to carry on
what Clegg labeled an "interdepartmental squabble."
The radio abuse involved two departments of county government,
but Clegg refused to say which departments were involved in the inci
dent
"Communications were basically crippled," Clegg added.
The county operates two-way radios for a number of departments,
including the environmental health, parks and recreation, solid waste,
water, planning, public housing, building inspection, garage, mosquito
control, operation services, buildings and grounds, emergency manage
ment and the sheriff's department.
All radios were ordered turned off from Wednesday afternoon to
Friday morning with the exception of the sheriff's department and em
ergency management office.
"The sheriff uses our channel as a talk-around channel, and he was
having problems," Clegg said.
Friday morning, some departments were allowed once again to use
radio communiciations. Departments were advised by the county man
ager's office when they could resume operations.
"Since the radios have come back on there hasn't been aiy prob
lem " Clegg added.
Persons with home or mobile scanners can pick up conversations by
county personnel operating two-way radios. County employees playing
on the radios, Clegg said, arc giving county government a bad reputa
tion.
He issued a stem warning for employees to clear the airwaves or that
he would have the radios removed from the vehicles permanendy.
"If people want to play they can stay home," he added.
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Public Meeting Set To Discuss EPA
Work At Sandy Creek Waste Dump Site
BY SUSAN USHER
In July 1983 Earl and Pamela
Gurkin of Sandy Creek noticed a
spot in their front yard where the
grass refused to grow.
Using a bulklo/cr, Gurkin dug
down four to six feet, unearthing
evidence of No. 6 fuel oil, creosote
and septic tank wastes that had been
dumped there years earlier.
About a year later, in March
1984, the Gurkins and the families
of Ernest Grainer and Judy Church
were temporarily relocated from
their homes. The Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) removed
1,770 tons of oily sludge and soils
from their yards before the families
returned home.
That excavation project began a
process that isn't over yet. The three
yards now arc part of an area known
to the EPA as the Potter's Septic
Tank Service Pits Superfund Site.
The hazardous waste site is eligible
to be cleaned up using federal mon
ey once a remedy is decided upon, a
process that may take several more
years.
Eight years and many, many tests
after the Gurkins' discovery, the
EPA plans lo present a progress re
port on its activities next Thursday,
March 28, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
at Leland Middle School. The pur
pose of the meeting is to provide the
community an opportunity to dis
cuss current findings and future site
activity with EPA representatives.
"The only word we've been giv
en is that everything has to proceed
along this timetable," said David
Clegg, Brunswick County manager
and attorney. As recently as 30 to 45
days ago, he said, the EPA was still
collecting affadavits from the coun
ty health department staff.
While the Superfund process is
time-consuming, it is important to
the county, Clegg suggested. First,
because even if the EPA eventually
dccidcs the dump site poses no sig
nificant threat to the environment
the decision will have come only af
ter a thorough investigation.
Second, rapid and dramatic
changes in land use are taking place
in the county, changes that need to
take into account the history of the
property.
'This serves notice to those who
are proposing to change the face of
AT B00NES NECK
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"This serves notice to those who are
proposing to change the face of the land
that uses from the past can come back to
haunt you."
? David Clegg
County Manager
the land that uses from the past can
come back to haunt you," said
Clegg.
A case in point: A Wilmington
company that purchased the old Lc
land landfill and in the face of state
and county concerns, has decided
not to sell ? for garden plots or any
other purpose ? 13 lots created on
the old dump site.
First Study Phase Over
According to an EPA fact sheet
on the Sandy Creek site, a field
study completed in early 1990
shows the extent of contamination
at the Potter's Pits Site to be limited
to the immediate vicinity of the two
former waste disposal areas, north
and south of Joe Baldwin Drive in
Sandy Creek, and in the direction
groundwater flows from the site to
ward Chinnis Branch. The dominant
contaminants detected included
compounds associated with petrole
um products or wastes and metals.
No PCBs were found.
The EPA studied areas inside the
residential town of Sandy Creek
near Maco and an area across U.S.
74-76 from the town, but eventually
narrowed its scope to include only
the area off Joe Baldwin Drive.
Waste disposal pits used by waste
haulers between 1969 and 1980 arc
the sources of the site contamina
tion. Septic tank sludge, oil sludge
and other waste materials were
trucked to the site and placed in
shallow unlincd pits or directly on
the land surface, according to the
EPA.
The 1990 study also shows:
?The extent of soil contamination
around the old pits seems to be re
stricted to the upper 15 feel of soil.
?Residential air within a house built
over one of the waste pits showed
no contamination from the site.
?While the Sandy Creek communi
ty is served by individual residential
wells, no residential well has been
effected by contamination from the
site.
?Groundwater contamination in the
sand aquifer is restricted to the area
comprised of the former disposal
pits and an area extending toward
Chinnis Branch. Concentrations of
contaminants decrease dramatically
toward the branch.
?Contamination of surface water
and sediment within Chinnis
Branch is restricted to metals, of
which most are naturally occurring
elements.
Feasibility Study Next
The next step for the EPA is to
develop a risk assessment and fcasi
blity study that summarizes the al
ternatives it is considering for
cleanup of the site.
In April the EPA plans to install
additional monitoring wells and to
make more soil borings.
When the feasibility study is
completed another public meeting
will be held and the EPA will ex
plain its proposed plan to remedy
contamination at the site and open a
30-day public comment period.
Sometime after that the EPA will is
sue a record of decision. Once ap
proved a remedy with be designed
and executed.
Documents relating to the site
and the Supcrfund program arc
available to the public at an infor
mation repository set up by the fed
eral government at the East Colum
bus Branch of the Columbus Coun
ty Library in Reigelwood.
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