Resident talks about early morning west Jackson house fire

JACKSON, Tenn. — One of the residents living in a house that caught fire early Friday morning in west Jackson spoke with us about the fire, describing what happened.

“We were just lucky to have gotten out of the house in time really, because it was just faulty wiring,” resident Rodney Jones said as he described being woken up by the smell of smoke. “The fire marshal has already been down here and seen it.”

Investigators with the Jackson Fire Department said they responded around 4 a.m. Friday to a home on Foxlea Cove.

Authorities said the fire was in the outside wall of the house and caused minimal damage.

“There was a naked wire in the wall, and that naked wire was shooting sparks off on the dryer, and the lint from the dryer caught fire and run up the wall,” Jones said.

One neighbor said she woke up when she smelled the smoke.

“And I woke up with the lights and the smell, and they was hammering on the wall on the outside,” next-door neighbor Charanda Anderson said. “I didn’t know what was going on, and so I opened up the door and there was four or five fire trucks.”

Jones said he and his roommate, who authorities said is disabled, woke up before smoke alarms sounded.

“And it just so happened that we were lucky enough that we smelled the smoke, because the fire alarm didn’t even go off,” he said. “We have fire alarms in there. They came in and said they checked them, but the fire alarms didn’t even work. We just happened to wake up.”

The battalion chief said they were able to evacuate the home before anyone was hurt or suffered smoke inhalation.

“The fire department got here extra fast,” Jones said. “I imagine they were here in five minutes or so after we called them, maybe less. I’m grateful they got here as quick as they did. We might have lost the house.”