Forsyth County firefighters worked overnight Thursday and through the morning Friday to extinguish two fires at different locations in the county.
Authorities said no one was injured at either scene, but damage to both structures was significant.
A large number of fire trucks and three ambulances responded to the Gracemont Assisted Living facility, located at 4960 Jot Em Down Road in northern Forsyth County after a fire was reported at about 7:30 a.m. Friday, according to Division Chief Jason Shivers with Forsyth County Fire Department.
Shivers said there was a heavy presence of rescue personnel due to the types of residents who lived there. The fire occurred in a building where memory care residents live.
There were 38 residents evacuated.
Shivers said the fire originated in a dry storage room in the back building of the Gracemont campus, likely in or near a vent fan. He said that the fire was detected by the building’s alarm system, and a building maintenance worker kept it at bay with an extinguisher until firefighters made it to the scene.
He said the building housed a number of residents, who were all evacuated to other parts of the property. The building will remain closed to residents, at least for the time being, because all utilities had to be cut.
Shivers said that fire damage was contained to the storage room, but the Gracemont building has a large amount of water damage from a water line that was melted through in the fire.
According to Shivers, firefighters also responded to a fire overnight that extensively damaged a home under renovation in the Polo Fields subdivision.
Shivers said engines responded to 6655 Waterbury Way at about 11:30 p.m. Thursday and found the unoccupied home “heavily involved” and nearly ready to collapse.
He said that the structure had been burning for a while before it was noticed by a neighbor across the street.
“The damage was done by the time that we got there,” Shivers said.
He said that firefighters initially entered the home, but pulled out shortly after due to the extent of the fire and the likelihood of collapse.
Shivers said the house will likely be a total loss, and that investigations into the cause of this fire are ongoing.
“Because it was an unoccupied structure, there is a need to find out what the cause was,” Shivers said.
He said that nobody was injured in either of the fires.