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POWELLSVILLE – An early morning fire here Thursday destroyed an old home in Powellsville.

The home, a wooden two story structure believed to be at least 100 years old, is located at 306 West Main Street, across from Powellsville Baptist Church. It was not occupied.

“Nobody lived there; the homeowner lives in Raleigh,” stated Powellsville Fire Chief Ralph Brinkley.

Brinkley said the Powellville Volunteer Fire Department was paged out at 4:53 a.m. and responded with three units and 17 firefighters. Mutual aid assistance was provided by the Trap Volunteer Fire Department. They had eight firefighters and one unit on the scene.

Brinkley said the cause of the fire is unknown at this point.

“The back portion of the house was fully engulfed when we arrived, so it’s a safe guess to say the fire started there,” Brinkley noted. “But what caused it is under investigation.”

Powellsville VFD units remained on the scene until 10 a.m. but returned twice on Thursday (11:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.) to extinguish hot spots.