A fire buffeted by 25 mph winds destroyed four homes Friday in a subdivision off Bethelview Road in central Forsyth County, causing property damage that could approach $1 million. No injuries were reported.
Brick and wood colonial-style homes at 6225, 6249, 6255 and 6265 Waveland Drive were destroyed, with the latter three burning to the ground.
Fire officials were not able to identify the homes' owners Friday. The cause of the fire had not been determined by press time.
Heat from the fires grew so intense that vinyl siding melted on the front of one house across the street. Windborne, burning debris caught several lawns ablaze.
The fire apparently started at 6255 Waveland Drive, where a teenager spotted flames spreading up the outer left side wall of the house at about 12:30 p.m., fire officials said.
Jamie McGarry said he was skateboarding along Waveland Drive when he spotted smoke and walked over to investigate.
"The whole side of the house was on fire," said McGarry, who knocked at the door of the home, where an elderly couple was inside. The couple was slow to evacuate the house and the man looked upset, McGarry said.
The teen then called 911 and watched as the wind-fed flames whipped over to the neighboring house on the left and igniting it, before spreading to the house on the right.
By the time the first fire trucks arrived a few minutes later, four houses were engulfed, with another being threatened.
"They were rolling when we got here," said Battalion Chief Tommy Coleman with the Forsyth County Fire Department.
Several neighbors made futile efforts to get the infernos under control with garden hoses, Clark said.
Meanwhile, firefighters went with a strategy of containment, laying down 2
