Two people have been hospitalized following a house fire on Sunday evening at a residence located on Blacksnake Road, Northeast of Stanley, North Carolina.
Gaston County authorities responded to calls of a house being engulfed in flames at the location just after six o’clock on the evening of December 28. Multiple fire departments responded to the incident.
David Toomey, Lucas-Riverbend Fire Department Chief, confirmed to local news outlets that the home involved in the fire on Sunday was occupied by the parents of NASCAR Cup Series superstar Denny Hamlin.
Won One Real Estate, a company owned by Hamlin, is listed as the owner of the home according to public records.
While Toomey did confirm the identities of the people who lived at the house, he did not confirm whether Hamlin’s parents were the two people hospitalized. At this time, the identities of those two people are still being kept private.
According to the Fire Chief, who spoke to several different local news outlets in the aftermath of the house fire, the home was already somewhere between 40-and-45-percent engulfed in flames by the time first responders arrived on the scene.
One of the difficulties with this particular fire, Toomey says, was that there are no fire hydrants anywhere near the home. That means that all of the water that had to be used to fight the fire, had to be trucked in. Toomey estimates anywhere between 10-12 fire departments were involved in fighting the blaze.
While Toomey classified the house as a “total loss,” the Fire Chief did say that they managed to save some of the stuff that was being stored in the garage — which included some expensive racecars and personal racing memorabilia.
“They had some really expensive cars in the garage and some racing memorabilia and stuff, so all that was saved,” Toomey told the Athletic. “We were able to save all that and get it out so it wasn’t damaged.”
Hamlin is a legend in NASCAR circles, as a three-time champion of the DAYTONA 500 and a 60-time race-winner in the NASCAR Cup Series. The Chesterfield, Virginia-native currently competes full-time at NASCAR’s top-level for Joe Gibbs Racing, where he drives the No. 11 Toyota Camry XSE.
In addition to his duties as a racecar driver, Hamlin is also co-owner of 23XI Racing — which is co-owned by Michael Jordan and Curtis Polk. 23XI made headlines earlier in the off-season after being involved in an antitrust lawsuit with NASCAR, and settling to bring better terms to Chartered Teams.
This is a developing story. Any additional updates will be added as they become available.
