What’s in the news: A massive house fire, Selina Sullivan’s in the race after all and Le has a creepy story about a man who collects Teddy bears

Man injured in fire
Holly Headrick had the dramatic story of a fire destroying a home in Candler and critically injuring a man in the house. WLOSer photographer David Sage (sp?) was in the area and got great video of the flames engulfing the house.

The photog then put down his camera and dragged the burned man further from the burning home. A couple of people had already helped the injured man get away from the house, but the fire was so hot that the photog and another person dragged him further away.

Holly said the fire had left the neighborhood shaken. She said investigators are looking for a cause, though they believe the fire may have started in the kitchen or dining area.

Fugitive caught
Anthony Artrip, the fugitive who crashed his truck in Oakley last month and still managed to escape police was finally captured Monday outside Pittsburgh. Somebody gave police a tip that he was hiding out in a hotel and the cops surrounded him. Artrip tried to escape through some ceiling duct work, but the cops used tear gas to get him out. Artrip is a suspect in several bank robberies.

In other news…
A car flipped on I-40 in Haywood Road. An SUV was pulling another car when the SUV had a blow-out and wrecked… Somebody found an old hand grenade near the Hot Springs Campground over the weekend. Asheville’s bomb squad went out and blew it up… Warren Wilson College kicked off a lunch-and-learn series about good green development… And Tuesday is primary election day. Pat Simon says election officials say we won’t get final results until 10 p.m. or so because the new optical scan voting machines only have one electronic cartridge instead of two. With two, one cartridge could be sent quickly to the elections board for an early count. Now each precinct will have to be closed before the cartridge can be sent.

It’s hot outside
Monday’s high temp set a new record. It got up to 82. The old high was 79, set in 1990.

In still other news…
A teacher at Immaculata School in Henderson County was charged with assault after a mom said the teacher popped her punk in the back of the head for throwing a pen across a classroom. Mom says the school has a strict policy against corporal punishment. The school principal says there was an investigation and there was no finding of wrong-doing on the teacher’s part… Jeremy Butterfield says a couple who witnessed a fatal wreck in Rutherford County over the weekend involving a State Highway Patrol trooper and a car driven by a 72-year-old woman was unavoidable. The woman pulled out in front of the cop as he was chasing a speeder and there was a horrible crash.

Selina Sullivan: she’s in, she’s out, she’s in
Asheville City Council candidate Selina Sullivan has been in and out of the election for council that we’ve almost lost track. But in a brief mention Monday, WLOSers said Sullivan would remain in the race. The short blip of story comes after WLOSers blew the story out on Friday, saying that Sullivan had quit the election after their story about her getting arrested and charged with writing a bad check for $1,5000.

Lawn mower man
John Le had a bizarre and creepy story about a dude who mows lawns and collects bears. The dude is 51 years old and lives with his mom in Henderson County. Some 800 bears fill his home and mom is getting fed up because there’s no room for anything else. “How long can she bear it?” Le asked.

The collector dude said he wanted to be buried with some of his favorite bears, and Le showed video of him hugging and rocking and cuddling his bears.

After the story, Tammy Watford leaned on the anchor desk and called it sweet. But Larry Blunt, also a bit creeped out by the story, said of collecting stuffed animals, “That’s usually a woman thing isnt it?”