Officials investigate cause of house fire in Carroll County

CARROLL COUNTY, Tenn. — Police and fire crews are looking into what caused a house fire at one home in rural West Tennessee.

According to the Carroll County Fire Department, a call came in around 9:15 p.m. on Wednesday regarding a house fire near the 1800 Block of Howse Church Road near Atwood.

Fire Chief Amanda Sneed says the fire department responded to the scene in 12 minutes.

According to Sneed, the fire started in the garage, and led into the home.

“The residents were able to get out. They did lose three animals,” said Sneed.

In photos, you can see the entire garage was destroyed, including two vehicles inside. Burned debris was visible on the property as well.

From various angles, you can see smoke damage on the metal roofing panels.

The front door of the home was completely gone, giving a vision of some of the damage inside.

Sneed says the family was able to evacuate, due to home detectors alerting them.

“They woke up and the smoke alarms were going off,” said Sneed. She recommends the public to check their smoke detectors.

“The State of Tennessee has a program where you can get free smoke alarms. The local fire departments will come and install them,” said Sneed.

‘Get Alarmed, Tennessee!’ is a grant-funded fire-safety education and smoke alarm installation program administered by the fire marshal’s office.

Any home that has detectors that are more than 10 years old, or does not have any at all, can request to have new ones installed.

“So if anybody has some and think ‘well I don’t need them’, but they’re old, they still need to be replaced. I recommend everybody to get ahold of their local fire department,” said Sneed.

The cause of the fire has not been determined.

For more information on the program and how to get free smoke detectors installed in your home, click here.

For more Carroll County news, click here.