(Cordova, TN) The former Cordova home of Isaac Hayes caught fire shortly after 6:00 p.m. Wednesday.
Firefighting crews from Memphis, Germantown, and Shelby County battled the inferno for hours. Investigators on scene Wednesday night had not yet determined the cause or origin of the fire.
The three people inside the home had evacuated when the fire department arrived.
They were transported to Methodist Germantown Hospital to be checked for smoke inhalation.
The man living in the house told one neighbor they were watching TV, when they heard a loud pop. Other neighbors heard different stories.
The 7,000 square-foot brick home was where Isaac Hayes died of a heart attack in 2008. The house later went through foreclosure, and is now owned by Kenneth and Doris Peters.
The Peters own both this house at 9280 Riveredge Dr., as well as 368 Riveredge Dr.
State Rep. Steve McManus lives down the street. He said Isaac Hayes’ house had already caught fire within the last few months, after the new owners moved in.
In fact, when he and his wife saw fire trucks zoom by Wednesday night, he knew where they must be headed.
“You know what the first thing I said was? I’ll bet you it was Isaac Hayes’ home. I really did,” McManus said. “That’s not coincidence. It takes an act of congress to burn a home down, and look,” McManus said.
At the house next door, teenager Julie Anne Joyner noticed something wrong when she looked out her window, “I was just doing my homework at my window, I saw dust coming off.”
What looked like dust, was debris coming from the fire.
She went outside to see if her neighbors were OK.
They told her they had already called the fire department.
By the end of the night, the house was gutted and a total loss.
Brent Perkins, a spokesman for the Shelby County Fire Department, said, “It looks pretty serious at this point. We’re working hard to find what was the scene of the fire initially. The scene of the fire then moved through the house, the attic, and the upper spaces.”