(July 17, 2007) A house on Delburg Street near Lake Davidson (right) was destroyed Tuesday morning in a blaze ignited when workers installing a fence accidentally cut a gas line. Nobody was hurt, but damage was extensive.

The fire started around 9 a.m. and spread quickly through the two-story home at 525 Delburg St., in The Woods subdivision. Heat from the flames damaged homes on either side, at 519 and 531 Delburg, melting vinyl siding and gutters.

Whitney Axtell and Ben Barrett (photo at left) were house-sitting Tuesday when the fire started. Both got out of the house uninjured when a worker installing a fence began pounding on the door. “It looked small,” Ms. Axtell said of the fire. She and Mr. Barrett quickly led two dogs out of the house and moved two of three cars out of the driveway.

They took the dogs to a neighbor’s house, and by the time they returned, the fire “had spread to the top of the house,” Mr. Barrett said. “You could hear the gas burning.”

After the blaze was put out Tuesday, the roof had collapsed and most of the rooms inside appeared heavily damaged.

The home’s owner, Ms. Axtell’s aunt Katherine Wassung, and her fiancé Jonathan Basnett, were vacationing on the Outer Banks when the fire occurred, Ms. Axtell said. “They’re on their way back now,” she said.

Ms. Axtell said a work crew was digging in the yard with a small Bobcat earth mover, in preparation for constructing a new fence. Mr. Barrett said it appeared the Bobcat pushed a boulder into the gas line, rupturing it.

Davidson Fire Chief Bo Fitzgerald said it’s not clear how the gas line caught fire. The Mecklenburg County Fire Marshal is investigating.

He said Davidson firefighters got the fire report just after 9 a.m. When they arrived, the house “was heavily involved.” Firefighters began working inside the house to control the blaze, but when fire appeared under where firefighters were, they moved outside and tried to control damage to neighboring homes.

Besides Davidson, fire companies from Cornelius, Mount Mourne and Huntersville responded. East Lincoln firefighters came to Davidson to provide backup at the fire station.

Ms. Axtell was struggling for a way to show gratitude to firefighters Tuesday morning. “I wish I know how to thank firefighters,” she said. “It’s just awesome that they just ran in there. They’re fighting to save your house and stuff.”