Fire guts downtown home

Video

The homeowner and neighbors watch from the street as firefighters investigate a house fire on Dingle Street. Amazingly, the blaze did not spread to neighboring homes. Watch »

Fire burned through a house near Huger Street on the upper Charleston peninsula today.

No one was home when flames began consuming the single-story home at 4 Dingle St. some time before 5 a.m., neighbors and the homeowner said. Though the three-bedroom dwelling was left a charred ruin, the flames did not spread to neighboring houses on either side, removed by about the width of a car or less.

Homeowner Francis Coaxum, 69, said he rushed over from Mount Pleasant after seeing a news report about the fire. Coaxum said neighbors had already left voice messages on his cell phone before that. He said his younger brother, Chris Coaxum, had been staying at the Dingle Street home for the better part of 20 years, but had been in the hospital at the time of the fire.

Charleston fire investigators were on the scene.

Reach Noah Haglund at 937-5550 or nhaglund@postandcourier.com