DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Flames tore through a local subdivision underground, unseen, causing a home and random yards to catch on fire Tuesday afternoon.
“It’s been really traumatic,” said Daryll Watkins.
He lives in the neighborhood near S. Deshon Rd in Lithonia.
A DeKalb County Watershed Management employee who was there when it happened told Channel 2’s Courtney Francisco that the team was working to repair a sewer line when they hit a power line.
“When we hit it, we seen fire,” said Corderro Riley.
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He said the spark must have traveled through the ground and lit a vacant home on the next block on fire.
“The residents, they were out there with water buckets,” said Riley. “Good thing we have fire extinguishers in all our trucks.”
He said his team grabbed those extinguishers and put out fire after fire as flames shot out of random junction boxes across the subdivision, igniting the grass around it.
“We’re still in shock,” said Watkins. “Now, we need to find out what’s going to happen next, and what are next steps, and what we can do to prevent in the future.”
Riley said power lines typically have safety mechanisms in place to stop fires from traveling in this manner. In hindsight, he suspects the power line ignited the internet cable next to it.
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“The fiber optic doesn’t have these junction boxes that stop it,” said Riley. “The fiber optic kept it traveling.”
He thinks someone should separate those lines more.
Riley added that he thinks the underground cables are mismarked by nearly four feet, causing his team to dig into them.
“I said, ‘This is a call from God.’ They need to upgrade this neighborhood. That’s my feeling,” said Riley.
Neighbors want confirmation, compensation and a plan for prevention.
Georgia Power sent Channel 2 Action News a statement that said it is investigating the incident and working to restore power to the neighborhood.
We are waiting to hear back from watershed management and AT&T.
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