AUBURN — Six people have been displaced after a garage fire caused severe damage to their home in Auburn.
Gwinnett County firefighters responded at 11:09 p.m. Sunday to an occupant report of a house fire on Tupelo Trail NE in Auburn. The 911 caller said the garage was on fire and everyone was out of the home. Additional callers told emergency responders that vehicles in the driveway were catching on fire.
According to fire officials, a resident told firefighters he was upstairs when the smoke alarms started going off. He checked the basement and then returned to the main level and found smoke coming from the garage. After entering the smoke filled garage, he could see the fire in the back-left corner and attempted to extinguish with a fire extinguisher from the doorway. When the extinguisher was ineffective, he attempted to extinguish with a garden hose but was unsuccessful.
Crews arrived on scene and found heavy fire involvement in the garage of a two-story home on a basement. The flames were quickly spreading to the living areas of the home and two vehicles parked in the driveway.
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While firefighters worked to bring the fire under control inside, another hose line was deployed to extinguish a fully involved vehicle fire in the driveway. Ground ladders were placed against the front side of the home as a secondary means of egress for firefighters. Primary and secondary searches found no victims and all occupants were accounted for with no injuries.
The fire caused extensive damage to the main floor of the home sending smoke and heat upstairs to the second floor. The basement sustained heavy water damage. One vehicle inside the garage was completely destroyed along with a pickup truck in the driveway. A third vehicle sustained moderate damage in the driveway.
All utilities for the home were secured. It is believed that two pet lizards did not survive the fire. No injuries were reported.
A total of six people including two adults and four children have been displaced by the fire.
A fire investigator responded to the scene for origin and cause determination. According to the fire investigator, the fire originated in the back-left corner of the garage and the cause is undetermined. A cause electrical in nature could not be ruled out at the time of the investigation, the fire investigator said.
