Advocates urge prevention as Red Cross reports uptick in home fires; Charlotte lacks dedicated burn center for severe injuries.
GASTON COUNTY, N.C. β A house fire that left father of NASCAR star Denny Hamlin Dennis Hamlin dead and mother Mary Lou Hamlin hospitalized is raising new concerns about fire safety, even in homes equipped with modern protections, prompting advocates to emphasize that no home is immune from the danger.
“Our top concern is that people think it’s going to happen to somebody else,” Jason Gudzunas, executive director of the Charlotte Metro Red Cross, said.
The fire at Hamlin’s parents’ home is drawing attention to just how fast a house fire can start and spread. Local fire safety advocates say house fires can start unexpectedly and spread in minutes.
“We respond about 60,000 disasters a year, and over 90% are home fires,” Gudzunas said.
Gudzunas emphasized a crucial tool for prevention: working smoke alarms.
“We do a campaign every single year,” Gudzunas said. “It’s called Sound the Alarm throughout the United States, and we install smoke alarms for free in neighborhoods, and we check batteries to make sure they’re working.”Β
The American Red Cross has seen an uptick in house fires compared to the same time last year, according to Gudzunas, who speaks on the concern through firsthand experience.
“I just think if it could happen to me, it could happen to anybody, because I know the dangers of home fires, and I took all the precautions, and home fire still happened,” he said.
Gudzunas added that home fires occur far more frequently than other disasters.Β
“They happen way more often than hurricanes and tornadoes and all of the things that you hear the front page news, but people don’t think it’s going to happen to them,” Gudzunas said.
Burn advocates say even when people escape, the injuries can be life-altering.
“Everybody don’t understand that you just don’t heal overnight from it because there’s post trauma, there’s all sort of things,” Joe Steele, a member of Victim 2 Victor, a nonprofit geared to help burn survivors, said.Β
Steele is himself a burn victim and understands the hurdles of recovery.
“I’ve become advocate for everything that can help people keep from getting burned,” Steele said. “And I want to help everybody that has been burnt try to get through the process of healing. Because the healing is a hard part, because it ain’t just your skin healing.”
For victims in Charlotte, there’s a challenging reality. The city does not have a dedicated burn center. That means patients with serious burn injuries are often transferred to facilities outside the region for specialized treatment.
Derek Miller, burn outreach and prevention educator at the Jaycee Burn Center at UNC in Chapel Hill, says they offer continuous care for patients from emergency response to aftercare support.
“We know that burn survivors, their needs would continue far beyond discharge,” Miller said. “We have integrated what we call aftercare services, so that’s survivor support as well as the family for as long as they need it. And that might be counseling that might be coming to programs that might be peer support from other burn survivors. So it’s a full gamut of services for as long as survivors and families need it.”
Hamlin’s mother is being treated in Winston-Salem, where the only other burn center in the state is located.
Investigators have not released any details into what caused the fire at the Hamlin home.
Contact Myles Harris at mharris5@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.