Fire guts house on blight-ravaged Macon street

An early morning fire Monday gutted a dilapidated and abandoned house in one of inner-city Macon’s most blight-torn blocks.

Authorities believe the 3 a.m. blaze was intentionally set. No injuries were reported.

The burned house, a 1,025-square-foot, half-century-old brick dwelling at 1865 Fletcher St., sits among several vacant and falling-apart residences on a trash-littered side street that dead-ends near the southbound lanes of Interstate 75.

The place lies a block or so east of Pio Nono Avenue, just south of Mercer University Drive. It sits on an overgrown hillside that slopes down to the freeway.

Ben Gleaton, a fire investigator for the Macon-Bibb County Fire Department, said brick walls were pretty much the only thing left of the burned house. The house had no electricity running to it. Property records estimate its worth at about $8,000.

The long-empty and all-but-forgotten houses and duplexes there at the upper end of Lincoln Street have in the past been known hangouts for drug users.

This story was originally published May 30, 2016 at 4:12 PM with the headline "Fire guts house on blight-ravaged Macon street."