Firefighters responded Tuesday at around 4 p.m. to George Stout’s call when he and his mother, Margaret, spotted smoke coming from their neighbor’s three-story home at 1301 Hillside Drive.
They tried to call the neighbor, but no one answered. Stout told firefighters he drove up the driveway to see if they might be burning brush or having a fire in their fireplace, but discovered no one home and smoke coming from under the rafters.
He immediately called the Elizabethton Fire Department to report the smoke, but before he got off the phone, the house was blazing out the back side. The windows busted out not long after.
A large propane tank sits not far from the entrance to the garage, but it was not affected by the flames, which singed a large portion of the front of the house.
No one was inside the home when it caught fire, firefighters said.
Firefighters are unsure what caused the fire or where it started, but said it was really blazing when they arrived.
The Stouts last saw their two neighbors, a couple, on Friday or Saturday night. Firefighters were not able to get in contact with the home owners while putting out the fire.
“It’s a large house and it was really, really going when we got here,” Firefighter Andy Hardin said. He said they had it under control quickly.