A South Carolina couple in Fountain Inn has asked neighbors to stop dialing 911 after their Halloween décor sparked a wave of fire‑alarm calls.
Sam Lee, a former mayor of the city, and his wife Amanda Riggins Peden turned on a huge “fire house” display on Oct. 3. The lights made every window glow orange, and a spray of smoke poured from under the porch—creating a convincing illusion that the house was actually burning.
Within minutes, the local fire department reported three to four emergency calls, and the next day the hotline was flooded with dozens of calls. Lee insists the show is a harmless celebration; “Most people appreciate it,” he told TODAY.com, “but you’ll always find a few who won’t.”
Peden posted a video on Facebook to clear the air. “Our house will be on fire (no real fire) as a Halloween decoration every night from 8‑10 PM until Oct. 31,” she wrote. “Please do not call the fire department again!”
Fire chief Russell Alexander explained that when the display first appeared, the department received about 30 calls in October. Even today the crew still pulls a truck to the house whenever someone rings the doorbell of the emergency line. “It’s bad practice to not send a truck, and we can’t ignore the call,” he said.
The TikTok video of the setup has nearly 25 million views and has drawn sharp criticism and admiration in equal measure. Some users warned that “if it were real it could be dangerous,” while others praised the realism, noting that the smoke smolders at an unusual speed and color.
“The display isn’t a real house on fire,” Alexander repeated, “but it can fool people who stay too close.”
Lee and Peden say these lights are part of a tradition that grows each year. In 2021 they staged a faux aircraft crash on the lawn, complete with a skeleton passenger. The next year, they fabricated a car wreck with a 12‑foot skeleton inside an overturned van. “It’s just gotten crazier and crazier every year,” Lee told us.
The couple plans to keep the spooky tradition going until Halloween’s close, asking neighbors to recognize the trick, not the real threat, so the only thing on fire will be the décor—not the community’s safety.
Source: New York Post
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