Fire officials aren’t certain how a fire started that severely damaged a downtown home early Tuesday morning, but they are calling the house a “total loss” in the wake of the incident.
The blaze, reported to the Corbin 911 Dispatch Center at 8:04 a.m., happed on 8th Street, just behind Corbin Middle School. The home, owned by Eddie and Tonya Thomas, was smoking heavily and had suffered considerable damage before firefighters arrived.
“A guy from City Utilities was driving up the street and noticed it,” said Corbin Fire Chief Barry McDonald. “It had already burned up through the attic and roof before we even got there.”
A Corbin fireman in front of a house on Eighth Street that burned Tuesday morning.
The fire started in the bathroom toward the center of the home. McDonald said Tonya Thomas had just left to go to work 10 to 15 minutes before it was reported.
“She thought she might have left something on,” McDonald said. “It was all burned up so we really couldn’t tell what started it.”
He said the house was likely damaged beyond repair.
Fourteen firefighters from the Corbin Fire Department responded to fight the fire. It took about two and a half hours to get the blaze totally extinguished.
No one was hurt in the blaze and no surrounding structures were damaged.
