Clayton News Daily

Photo by Curt Yeomans Clayton County firefighters try to cool off Monday after fighting a late night fire at a home in the Lake Spivey region near Jonesboro. The home was destroyed by the fire, which is still under investigation.

JONESBORO — A late-night fire Monday in Clayton County’s Lake Spivey region gutted a Jonesboro couple’s two-story house.

A neighbor called Clayton County firefighters to the home, located at 9062 Jodeco Estate Court, at 10:24 p.m., on a burn complaint, said fire department spokesman Capt. Walter Barber.

“When firefighters arrived on the scene, the house was fully involved, so the firefighters just went into full fire-fighting mode,” said Barber.

A neighbor, who declined to give his name, said an unidentified man and a woman were standing outside the house screaming “Fire! Fire!” at approximately the same time the fire department was called to the scene. The tall pine tress surrounding the house were also on fire, he said. He also said fire fighters initially had trouble putting out the fire until a ladder truck arrived and began pouring water on the home from above.

As the last flames in the attic were being put out, the extent of the damage became clear. The roof was completely gone. So were the windows on the front of the home. A row of bricks between an upstairs window, and the downstairs window below it, were blackened from soot. Firefighters were still trying to spray water on hot spots through the front doorways and window frames.

By 11:30 p.m., much of the fire was under control.

Barber said it is unclear at this time how many people lived at the home, or if anyone was home at the time of fire. “We didn’t have any reports of people inside the house at the time of the fire,” he said. “Our investigators are still trying to figure out where everybody who lives at the home was at the time of the fire.”

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, he said.

Check news-daily.com and the Wednesday edition of the Clayton News Daily for additional details.