Two fires occurring within less than two hours of each other, on opposite sides of the county, destroyed a work shed and damaged a home.

No one was injured in either blaze, and the cause of each was undetermined.

The first fire occurred about 2:57 p.m. when a shed at 470 Singing Hills Road caught fire, threatening some surrounding homes and causing a grass fire before burning to the ground. The smoke from the blaze could be seen from the intersection of Dana Road and U.S. 61 South.

“When Engine 5 got here, the shed was fully involved,” deputy Vicksburg fire chief Craig Danczyk said. “Lt. Wesley Whitaker called in and said the fire appeared to be threatening homes near the structure.”

Danczyk looked at the large patch of burnt ground from near the shed south to the edge of the street.

“The radiant heat from the fire caught the winter leaves on the ground on fire. They had to use a booster hose to put them out,” he said.

Brian Pierce, who had been working in the shed with Jesse Thomas, the property owner, said they were building cabinets in the shop and left to get some more building materials.

“We left the lights on, and when we got back the shed was on fire,” he said.

“We saw the smoke, and I said, ‘That’s on Grange Hall Road,’” Thomas said as he watched the firefighters from his house. “We entered the road and I said, ‘That’s my house.’”

He said the shed held a lot of irreplaceable items. “Thirty years; it’s a total loss,” he added.

While Vicksburg firefighters were busy cooling the remaining hot spots at the shed, Warren
County volunteer firefighters from Fisher Ferry, LeTourneau and Culkin received a call of a house fire at a home of Robert LaBarre, 4317 Shenandoah Road, about 4:02 p.m.

County fire coordinator Jerry Briggs said firefighters arrived to see heavy smoke coming from the roof of the two-story home. LaBarre’s wife, who was in the home, got out of the building.

“The call came in as something exploding in the fireplace and filling the room with smoke,” Briggs said.

He said the fire went up between the chimney and the wall and into the attic of the home, adding firefighters saw flames in the attic after removing sections of the ceiling. He said firefighters were able to cover furniture in the house and remove other items before removing the ceiling and extinguishing the blaze.