Major fire destroyed house and other property at 403 Adams Street

UPDATED 3:45 PM, AUG 10

A fire that apparently started in a motor vehicle destroyed a large house at 403 Adams Street in New Albany Wednesday, August 10.

The fire is believed to have started in a motor vehicle in a carport about 11:30 a.m.

NEMiss.News was told, but has not been able to confirm, that someone was working on the vehicle that caught fire.

NAFD equipment on the scene at 403 Adams St.

NAFD Chief Mark Whiteside said firefighters made an initial very aggressive attack on the fire. Two fire fighters had minor burns and suffered from exhaustion. They were treated at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Union County. They have been released and are back on the job.

Within several minutes of starting the fire had spread to the entire house. The original or front part of the house appears to be a pre-World War II brick structure. A large two store frame structure has been added to the back (west) side of the original brick home.  Both the original brick structure and the large frame addition were heavily involved.

Multiple units of the New Albany Fire Department (NAFD) were still fighting the blaze as this was written, shortly after 2 p.m  Much of the flame had been extinguished 2-1/2 hours after the fire started, but the entire structure was still smoldering and pouring out significant smoke.

The structure was still standing, but there was clearly extensive fire and smoke damage. So much water was poured onto the fire that water pressure in homes several blocks from the blaze had slowed to a trickle by 1:30 p.m.

403 Adams St. housefire

Chief Whiteside said he called for backup from county volunteer fire departments including Ingomar and Myrtle. They assisted with the Adams Street fire and were available in case they might be needed for fires elsewhere in New Albany.

Chief Whiteside said the State of Mississippi Fire Marshall’s office had been called and would investigate the circumstances of the fire. More details will be published when they become available from official NAFD sources.