Cary house fire displaces three, causes minor injuries

Fire tore through a home in Cary’s Preston Point neighborhood before dawn Saturday, destroying the house on Ethans Glen Court and leaving three people displaced after they escaped with minor injuries.

Cary Fire Department crews and firefighters from Morrisville were called to the 100 block of Ethans Glen Court at about 12:07 a.m. Crews found heavy fire conditions when they arrived, then worked quickly to extinguish the flames. Even with that fast response, the home was a total loss.

The three occupants got out safely and were treated for minor injuries. Investigators were still working to determine what started the fire. For Wake County families, the message is plain: when a fire moves this quickly, a working smoke alarm, a practiced escape plan and clear exits can make the difference between getting out and being trapped.

The overnight response also showed how Cary’s fire network is built to handle a fast-moving emergency. The Cary Fire Department provides automatic and mutual aid to surrounding departments and operates out of nine fire stations. It averages about 28 calls a day, 850 a month and 10,200 a year, and the town classifies it as a Class 1 fire department. Every Cary firefighter is a certified EMT, and Wake County EMS handles ambulance transport in the Wake County portion of town.

Cary also says its fire marshal division performs more than 6,000 fire inspections a year, part of the broader effort to keep a blaze like this from spreading through a neighborhood. Simple steps still matter most inside the home: test smoke alarms regularly, replace old alarms before they fail, keep hallways and bedroom exits clear, and store heat sources, candles and cooking supplies away from anything that can catch fire. In a case like Ethans Glen Court, those precautions are not abstract advice; they are the few minutes that can decide whether a family loses a house or loses much more.