WILMINGTON — New security camera footage is shedding some light on a structure fire that burned a home on South Fifth Street to the ground Friday night. The footage, which was taken by a neighboring house’s security camera system with a TSUNAMI camera system shows two men approaching the house in a white truck, entering the home with flashlights, and finally running out of it and driving away.
Just minutes later the camera footage shows the house ablaze and the fire department working to fight back the flames. On Saturday, the Wilmington Fire Department issued a press release offering few details on the incident.
“First arriving units confirmed to dispatch a fully engulfed structure fire and immediately began a defensive operation. Multiple master streams were deployed in efforts to extinguish the fire and protect adjacent structures. Two adjacent buildings suffered exposure damage. No civilian injuries were reported and one minor injury to a firefighter, but medical treatment was declined. [The] cause of the fire has been ruled undetermined,” according to the Wilmington Fire Department (WFD).
On Monday, WFD spokeswoman Natosha Vincent said the case was still under investigation and as of now, it is up to the Wilmington Police Department to investigate if any crime has taken place.
Stephen Teachout, CEO and Chief Engineer of Ocean 10 Security, the company behind the TSUNAMI technology, sent the footage of the incident to Port City Daily as well as the Wilmington Police Department. The TSUNAMI camera system is no stranger to Wilmington, in fact, the Wilmington Police Department currently utilizes the system for its own purposes.
But this particular TSUNAMI system was actually located at a private residence next door to the burned-down house and because of that, Teachout was willing and able to share the footage.
“The TSUNAMI is a state of the art, plug & play security camera surveillance system that can be deployed anywhere in the world and begin working in just minutes,” according to the company’s website.
Port City Daily reached out to the Wilmington Police Department for a comment on the video and if police suspected anything criminal about the blaze. At the time of publication, WPD has not responded with a comment, but Spokeswoman Linda Thompson said she would reach out to those investigating and issue a statement when she had more information to provide.
Note: Port City Daily is not suggesting the individuals in the video committed any sort of crime or started the fire. Their purpose of being at the house is not known.
You can view the videos shared by Teachout below by following the links.
- Entry
- Departure
- Aftermath 1 (Fire)
- Aftermath 2 (Fire)
