The Twelve Oaks assisting-living community in Mount Airy is normally a quiet place — that is, unless its tranquility is disrupted by a fire.
Just such an incident transpired Wednesday afternoon at the facility on Galax Trail, involving a dryer fire. No injuries resulted, but the blaze prompted the evacuation of all 102 residents there, officials say.
The alarm was received by the Mount Airy Fire Department about 1:15 p.m., which its first unit arriving on the scene at 1297 Galax Trail within 5.5 minutes and six firefighters responding altogether.
Department personnel, led by Lt. Steve Everett, traced the blaze to a commercial dryer in the rear of the one-story assisted-living facility, in which linens had caught fire.
“Anytime anything produces heat, you can have a chance of something malfunctioning and causing a fire,” city Fire Chief Zane Poindexter explained Thursday.