CHARLOTTE — Someone driving by a burning home in east Charlotte Tuesday afternoon called 911 and alerted the residents.
“Charlotte Fire Department, what’s the address of the emergency?” the dispatcher said in the 911 call.
“I’m just driving by, and this lady’s house is on fire,” the good Samaritan told the dispatcher. “It’s going up, I’m watching it. The whole thing is on fire.”
A neighbor on Foxford Place watched it all happen.
“A guy in a truck was coming down the road, and he saw the flames, smoke coming out of the peak of the house,” said Leonard Smith, the neighbor.
Smith said he was home when the good Samaritan alerted his neighbor that her house was on fire.
“So, he jumped out his vehicle,” Smith said. “Then he started screaming about, ‘Hey, house is on fire. House is on fire’ and banging on her door and stuff.”
Video from Charlotte Fire shows the heavy flames coming from the roof of the one-story home.
The fire broke out just after 4:30 p.m. and investigators say the fire started in the laundry room.
It was ruled as accidental.
Smith said an elderly woman, her daughter, and a child were inside.
Fire officials say everyone made it out safely.
“The police came knocking on the doors and said, ‘You got to evacuate,’” Smith said.
Smith said his family and several other homes had to evacuate because the flames were so close.
“It was everywhere, you know, the flames, just above the peak of the house,” Smith said. “You could tell right there. But it was, it was bad. And the flames were popping. Everything was popping, and stuff.”
His neighbor recently had renovations done and was devasted that she must rebuild again.
“It was sad because they had just remodeled their house not long ago,” Smith said.
VIDEO: Firefighters met with heavy fire at east Charlotte house fire
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