A family's Easter Sunday celebration was cut short this weekend, after a fire broke out at their North Kelly Road home.
The Pilot Mountain Volunteer Fire Department received the call for the residential structure blaze shortly after noon April 20. The group responded with 15 members and received additional support via a mutual aid call from the Beaverley, Ness Lake and Salmon Valley fire departments.
No one was home at the time of the fire, and no injuries were reported. According to witnesses, the family was at a friend's home when the blaze began.
Crews were on scene for about five and a half hours, with much of that time spent mopping up, said Pilot Mountain fire chief Gil Lainey.
"There were hotspots inside that were very difficult to get to," said Lainey. "Because the structure was basically unsound, we couldn't get close enough to actually tear things apart, so it was a bit of a challenge for us."
The cause of the fire is still undetermined, with no estimate of damage, but the structure was "a total loss," said Lainey.
