A house fire on Scenic Drive Tuesday morning, March 24, was traced to underground utility lines by the Georgia Fire Marshall’s Office.
Fannin County Fire Chief Larry Thomas said Tony Pritchard of the state office determined that either an underground gas line or telephone line was to blame for setting the heating and air unit in the crawl space of the residence on fire.
The problem with the lines was then traced to a large tree that snapped and fell behind the house.
Thomas said firemen were called to the house at 8:56 a.m. When they arrived, they could see flames about the size of a fireplace fire showing through the bay window on the front side of the house.
Firemen made entry, knocked out that fire, then traced the origin of the fire to the crawl space.
It took firemen between 30 and 40 minutes to extinguish that blaze.
Thomas said the crawl space suffered heavy damage from fire and water, and the rest of the home suffered heavy smoke damage. The main level suffered only minor water damage.
The house belongs to Frank Ramsingh, who is in the process of remodeling, Thomas said.
Fourteen firefighters responded to the fire and were on the scene for two hours.