Early Morning Fire Leaves Belk Community Family Homeless

November 13, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

An early morning fire Friday destroyed a home on Corinth Church Road in the Belk community leaving a family of three homeless.

Lieutenant Matt Adcock of the DeKalb County Fire Department said the residents, Marty and Tamara Hensley and their teenage son Elijah escaped from their burning home through a window without any serious injuries. The family dogs perished in the blaze.

Lt. Adcock said the call came in at 1:23 a.m. Friday. “ We were paged out to a structure fire at 2189 Corinth Church Road. We arrived to find that the home was already engulfed in flames and couldn’t be saved. The Hensley’s had been asleep when the fire started but their son awoke and discovered it. He then woke his parents. They at first tried to escape through the front door but could not so they got out through a window. One of them suffered a minor scrape and was treated at the scene by DeKalb EMS. The cause of the fire is undetermined,” said Lt. Adcock.

The family lost all their belongings in the fire except the clothes on their backs. American Red Cross volunteers came to the scene to arrange help and shelter for the Hensley’s.

Members of the Belk, Short Mountain, Keltonburg , and Four Seasons fire stations responded with Tanker 1 along with DeKalb EMS and the Sheriff’s Department.

Firefighters were called back to the scene at 10:41 a.m. after the fire rekindled.

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