PILOT MOUNTAIN — What started as a controlled brush fire became a fully involved house fire Saturday afternoon.

According to Surry County Fire Marshal Doug Jones and Pilot Knob Deputy Chief Matt Tilley, a man who owned the property and home in the 3000 block of Cook School Road, about an eighth of a mile west of Matthews Road, was burning brush that had fallen during the winter storms.

Minutes before 1 p.m., Surry County 911 Communications center received a call that a fire had ignited in the home on the property.

“By the time we got there, the first person on the scene, it was already fully involved,” Tilley reported of the one-and-a-half story farm house.

The home was vacant and the owner, a Simmons subject according to Surry County tax maps, had no insurance on the home, Jones and Tilley reported.

Jones said the man was burning the brush when a flaming ember was caught by the wind and blown into the home, causing it to ignite.

“It appears to just be an accident,” Jones said.

Firefighters with Pilot Knob Volunteer Fire Department were assisted on the scene and at a water-fill point on Simmons Road by Bannertown and Ararat volunteer fire departments. Also, Pilot Mountain Rescue Squad and Surry EMS were on medical standby during the incident.

Tilley said firefighters extinguished both the house and the brush fires, and North Carolina Forest Service representatives were called to the scene as well.

The house, which had been vacant for several years according to Jones, was a total loss.

Several brush, grass and woods fires were dispatched Saturday across the county. Tilley said the ground is wet underneath, but everything is dry on top.