The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) today awarded $1,081,279 in Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) funding to local fire departments and emergency medical services organizations in the state of North Carolina.
Lake Norman Volunteer Fire Department received $61,750 for operations and safety.
For one Mooresville couple, 2008 will be remembered as the year they "stayed alive."
"It's not a bad thing when you survive a tragedy," said Doris Nash, whose multi-million dollar home with husband Michael burned to the ground in the early morning hours of Christmas Day.
Choosing to remain optimistic – escaping the blaze unharmed before their three-story home in The Point collapsed – Doris said she may never know what ignited the flames that decimated their house, belongings and at least two vehicles, yielding $3.2 million in damages.
A fire that started Tuesday on an island on Lake Norman is expected to burn for a few days, officials said.
Rangers from the N.C. Division of Forest Resources have been letting the fire burn on an 18-acre uninhabited island because it doesn't pose a threat to people or properties, said Brian Haines, a spokesman for the division in Raleigh.
Lake Norman fire investigators still don't know if lightning caused a fast-moving house fire in Mooresville Thursday night. The fire broke out shortly after six o'clock at a home in The Point community on Brawley School Road.
