Firefighters in Brown County were busy on Christmas Eve fighting two house fires on Town Hill and Lanam Ridge roads.
The first fire was reported at 5:11 a.m. in the 300 block of Town Hill Road with Brown County (Nashville), Jackson Township, Fruitdale and Hamblen Township volunteer fire departments responding. Firefighters were on scene until 9:40 a.m.
The home that burned was a turn-of-the-century log cabin that had been added onto. Nashville Fire Chief Nick Kelp said that what was left was not livable, but a detached garaged was saved.
The home was being rented, but the tenant was not home at the time of the fire.
The fire began in a bedroom, Kelp said. The cause is undetermined.
A GoFundMe page was set up for the renter, Charlie House, who lost all of his belongings and his pet cat in the fire.
House was celebrating Christmas with his mother in Kentucky when the fire happened.
“The landlord called him Christmas Eve and said ‘Hey, you need to get up here and secure your property,'” his father Tony House said.
“He didn’t know exactly what he was facing. He drove up with his mom and they got there. There was nothing to secure. Everything was burned up.”
Charlie House is staying in Kentucky with his mother while he works to find somewhere else to live, Tony House said.
Charlie House has only a bag of clothes left that he had brought with him to Kentucky.
“He lost everything,” Tony House said.
As of Jan. 2, the GoFundMe page has raised almost $1,000 out of the $20,000 goal.
About four hours later, the same departments responded to another home on fire in the 3500 block of Lanam Ridge Road, known as the “Moondance.”
No one was home at the time of that fire.
Jackson Township Chief Glenn Elmore said the fire was stopped at a three-car garage, and only about 25 percent of the structure was lost.
The blaze was reported by a passer-by just before 2 p.m. and the scene was cleared just before 7 p.m.
Elmore said a problem with the heating system may have started it, but an investigation would be done to determine the cause.
Firefighters were back out on Christmas Day responding to a rekindle of that fire.
