A Gantt Lake couple returned home late Wednesday to find their neighborhood filled with firetrucks and volunteer firemen attempting to save their home.

Scott Fight, chief of the Gantt Volunteer Fire Department, said Thursday no one was at home when his department responded to a fire at 16751 Sim Road, a Gantt Lake subdivision with a Dozier address. The back half of the two-story home was fully engulfed when Gantt’s two fire engines arrived on scene at 8:02 p.m.

There were no occupants at home at the time of the fire. Fight said the owners, John and Ann Dubose, who had been in Birmingham, returned home at about 11 p.m.

“The fire fully engulfed the back half of the house, so we went ahead and called in Heath Volunteer Fire Department and Dozier Volunteer Fire Department,” Scott Fight, chief of Gantt Volunteer Fire Department, said. “By the time the fire was controlled, the front half was left standing but the inside was completely gutted.”

The home’s flames could be seen from across the lake, Fight said.

A total of seven fire trucks were on scene to extinguish the fire, which was brought under control at 12:10 a.m.

But Thursday at 8:34 a.m., Gantt VFD received another call to the address because the fire started up again. The firefighters didn’t leave the scene until 11 a.m.

The house is considered a total loss, Fight said.

The cause of the fire is still being investigated by the state fire marshal’s office.

Advanced EMS, the Covington County Sherriff’s Department and Covington Electric also responded to the fire.