Fire at C&C Laundry Mat in Hawesville
Ann Shanklin was at her favorite laundry mat, C&C Laundry Mat in Hawesville, doing her laundry on Saturday, March 11th. To her surprise, while one load of her clothes was drying, the dryer caught fire. It went up in flames and all of its contents were destroyed. Thankfully, volunteer firemen from the Hawesville Volunteer Fire Department arrived quickly and put out the fire before it spread and no one was injured.
“I was doing laundry and I was sitting there listening to my air pods,” Ann said, “and I hear 3 or 4 pops and then I just sat there, not thinking anything of it and the next thing I know I’m smelling smoke. So, I looked up over the other dryer banks and my dryer was on fire.
Flames were shooting out of it and then smoke started happening, so me and one other person in there – we left. We grabbed what we could of our clothes. I had a whole dryer full. It’s gone. It’s up in flames. But, I saved my North Face jacket. That was important.”
Ann lives in Reynolds Station, near Patesville, and is in the process of building a new house there. She said that volunteer firefighters had the fire under control very quickly, and that they were extremely efficient and well-trained. She also said that she usually travels to C&C to do her laundry because the facility is always so clean and well-managed, and she really likes the family who owns it.
Owners at C&C said there was minimal damage. None of the other units were damaged, just the one dryer. They gave Ann a check for the clothes she lost in the fire as reimbursement.
