Two houses destroyed in Wednesday fires; one man taken to hospital

HUMBOLDT, Tenn. — Two families are without a place to live after fires rip through two homes Wednesday night.

“The people that lived there they came over here and knocked on the door and they asked if they could come in because their house was on fire,” neighbor Mark Clark said.

Clark says he was met by his neighbors at his front door pleading for help.

“I gave them water and something to drink. They came in and started watching TV and my wife called the fire department,” Clark said.

The Humboldt Fire Department says they got the call just after 8:30 Wednesday night to the home on 17th Avenue.

Officials say five kids and two adults were inside at the time. They say the fire started when the family was all in one room trying to keep warm from two space heaters. Officials say it was the only source of warmth inside the house.

“Well I was just hoping the fire wouldn’t spread over here and also about the family themselves,” Clark said.

One man was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation. He’s expected to be OK. Officials say the home is considered a total loss.

Shortly before the fire in Humboldt, crews in Madison County responded to another house fire.

“We received a call about 7:45 on Rochelle Road about a house on fire,” Madison County Fire Chief Eric Turner said.

Turner says when they got to the home the fire was coming out of the back of the house and the first and second floor windows.

“There were two occupants in the house at the time, and it was actually alerted by a passerby and saw the fire in the back of the house and knocked on the door and got the people out, and they got out without any injuries,” Turner says.

Officials are saying the house is  heavily damaged, but the family said it looks like they have lost everything.

Mark Clark has a message for both families.

“Keep your heads up and everything that matters. Everybody got out the house and that’s really the only thing that matters,” Clark says.