Dawson firefighters battle 3 house fires - WALB.com, Albany News, Weather, Sports

Dawson firefighters battle 3 house fires

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DAWSON, GA (WALB) -

Dawson firefighters battled three house fires in less than 24 hours.

One home was destroyed and another badly damaged just hours apart Wednesday morning.

Despite the cold snap, these fires had nothing to do with heating.

When temperatures drop as low as they have you can anticipate these fires would be caused by space heaters. Not the case here, it was unattended cooking that sparked fast spreading flames.

Cell phone video shows the smoke billowing from Latavius McIntosh's 7th Avenue home.

"I had lost everything. Everything I lost was inside the house," said Latavius McIntosh.

The fire started at 8:30 Wednesday morning after McIntosh left for work, the fire that left him homeless caused by a simple mistake.

"I turned the stove on and forgot it was on and it started a fire," said McIntosh.

"In the past 24 hours we had a couple of stove fires caused by people leaving food on the stove unattended," said Lt. Undrekia Barnes, Dawson Fire Department

Just a few blocks away on 3rd Avenue, this home caught fire around 4:30 Wednesday morning.

"When he got there, someone had been cooking french fries at the time and just happened to go sleep," said McIntosh.

Ironically, the firefighters were called out to the home next door when this woman says her stove started sparking, luckily no fire there.

And it's a good thing because the fire department was stretched thin.

"We had to have multi jurisdictional help this morning. We had to call in the county fire department to assist," said Barnes.

With 90 percent of his home destroyed.

"Only clothes I have is on my back," said McIntosh.

McIntosh does have his life and no one was hurt in any of the fires. But it's another reminder to watch your stove; not doing so could cost you your home.

And everyone escaped the fire on Third Avenue, it was about 60 percent destroyed. The American Red Cross has been called in to assist.

Firefighters recommend if you put food on the stove wear an oven mitt as a reminder that you have something cooking.

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