Fire Destroys Chatham Home Under Construction

Crews arrived at the home at the Preserve at Jordan Lake around 1:30 a.m.

"I heard a boom around 1 a.m. and saw the house was on fire," neighbor Joe Kelly said.

"Anytime you have a fire, a house still under construction with all of the exposed lumber, it goes up really, really fast" said Mark Rigsbee of the North Chatham Fire Department.

Neighbor William Posse doused his home with a garden hose to prevent the fire from spreading.

"I kept dousing myself. It got really hot," he said.

While firefighters were unable to save the home, they were able to contain it -- and put out small fires in the wooded lot -- with the help of neighbors.

"The fact that no one got was burned and we got all of those kids out of the houses, I was pretty happy," Kelly said.

One other home was damaged by the fire. There is no word on its cause.