Neighbor smells smoke coming through her air condition unit

Jessica Sandridge smelled smoke in her house as she laid in her bed around 1 a.m. Thursday. She got off her bed, walked around the house and saw nothing. She opened her front door and saw black smoke.
“I smelled smoke coming through my AC,” said Sandridge Thursday morning. “I opened the front door and I could not see the house across the street because of the smoke. I knew there was a fire somewhere.”
She made her way to the side of her house. It was then she noticed the two-story house, about 30 yards away from her house, was on fire. She made a 911-phone call at 1:19 in the morning.
Sandridge said she saw fire coming from the bottom of the house. Within a minute, the house was engulfed in fire. She moved her vehicle and took her family and some belongings out of the house in case the fire spread.
The heat from the flames was too much to handle, she said.
By around 5 a.m., Sandridge and her family returned home.
She was familiar with the old house because she has lived in the same location for eight years.
Over the last 2 1/2 years, Dainne Hagood, owner of the home, has been remodeling the home. Family members would travel to Abbeville to stay in the home on weekends.
The contractor, who did not want to give his name, was at the house at 11 Thursday morning. He had been doing work on the house for 2 1/2 years. This week he floated sheet rock in one of the rooms. There was no oil base paint or rags in the house, he added.
The house had been rewired over the last 24 months.
“It is sad to see this house like this,” said Sandridge. “They were remodeling it, but they were keeping it as original as they could. It still had many antiques in the house.”