Pot left on stove starts Ayden house fire - WNCT | 9 On Your Side Greenville NC & Eastern NC News

AYDEN, N.C. - Firefighters say a pot left on a stove started a house fire in Ayden Thursday afternoon.

It happened on Club Drive around 4:30 pm.

It's home to a father and his three sons. The dad was at work and the boys just got home from school.

9 On Your Side talked to Cari Harriger, the neighbor who called 9-1-1.

"The boys came running up to the house and they said, 'our house is on fire and [one of the boys] is in the house!'" she explained.

She says the 10 and 12 year old were out, but nobody could find the 15 year old.

"I started pounding on the house. The kitchen was fully engulfed and the house was full of smoke," Harriger said.

Luckily, the 15-year old had run out to hang with his friends and was not in the house.

The Ayden Fire Department and Winterville Community Fire Department were on scene in minutes. It took them about 15 minutes to put the fire out.

Investigators say a pot left on the stove caused the fire.

Nobody was injured, but Harriger says the damage is tremendous and the family will have to find a new home.

"They're going to need a lot of help. I mean this is a single parent with three children and everybody's just going to have to reach out to everybody and pull together resources to help them replenish everything," she said.