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NATCHEZ — The availability of water this morning was an issue in battling a blaze at an abandoned home located close to the roadway on U.S. 61 north of Natchez.

Natchez Fire Chief Robert Arrington this morning sent out a heartfelt thank you to the Concordia Parish Fire Department and its Chief Vick Brown.

The city’s fire department and the Adams County Fire Service battled a blaze in an abandoned home on U.S. 61 north of Natchez this morning, located near Cube Smart Storage, which is at 542 U.S. 61.

Arrington said fire fighters were having difficulty battling the blaze that began around 8 a.m. because of issues getting water at the scene.

“We owe Concordia Parish a big thank you and Fire Chief Vick Brown because we were having a bit of an issue with water. I called on a friend for help and they brought us a tanker full of water and we knocked it down pretty quickly,” Arrington said.

He said the closest fire hydrant was located across the highway from the burning house.

“Running a line across the highway would have been nightmarish. If someone runs over that line, it could completely destroy the pump on the truck,” Arrington said.

In fact, he said the closest three hydrants were located across the highway from the fire.

“Some plugs are good and some are not. Once we were able to fine one, we shuttled water from our trucks. Each of our trucks holds 1,000 gallons of water, so we had 1,000 gallons at a time we could put on it. We try to make sure the 1,000 gallons is consistent. That’s why we needed the tanker from Concordia Parish,” he said.

The fire chief said he is not certain how the fire started at this time.

“We have gotten the fire under control, but we are still hitting hot spots. We will search through what remains and see what may have caused it,” Arrington said. “As of right now, reports are that no one was in there. Of course, we are going to do a secondary search to be certain of that.”

The house that burned is located close to the highway, so traffic had to be diverted with fire fighters battled the blaze.

“We had to shut it down for a little bit, but traffic is flowing now. We are taking just one lane of the highway now,” he said.