A meat house full of antique furniture belonging to formersheriff Wiley Calcote was destroyed in a blaze Thursday night.

A fire at the mainly metal building, located at 155 WakefieldLane, was reported at 5:52 p.m. Thursday.

Zetus Volunteer Fire Chief Dale Anding said when his first unitsarrived on the scene, the building was fully involved. Firefightersreported hearing something that sounded like ammunition explodinginside the building when they arrived.

“There was a lot of antique furniture in there that he hadstored,” Anding said.

Units from Zetus, Hog Chain, Loyd Star and Bogue Chitto firedepartments fought the blaze until about 9 p.m., working primarilyto squelch the fire as the building and its contents were a totalloss, Anding said.

Calcote said at the scene that he had left his home right downthe road earlier in the day, and had just made it to town when hewas called about the fire.

An investigator was called to the scene Thursday night to try todetermine the fire’s origin. Calcote said he does not haveinsurance on the building.

Meanwhile, East Lincoln and Ruth Volunteer Fire Departmentsresponded to a blaze in a mobile home at 3:20 a.m. Friday.

The trailer belonging to John Busby at 1911 Busby Trail wasfully involved when firefighters arrived on scene, East LincolnChief Ronnie Killingsworth said. There was a bit of a scare whenfamily members told firefighters they believed Busby to still be inthe home.

“He came walking up after a while,” Killingsworth said. “He leftafter his girlfriend left around 2:40 a.m.”

Killingsworth said Busby’s trailer did not have power or gasconnected, and that he had been lighting it with candles. Busby didsuffer minor burns, Killingsworth said. Firefighters were on thescene until 6:30 a.m. looking for Busby in the rubble.

“We looked for him that whole length of time in there,” hesaid.

Firefighters said in spite of the scare, they were just gladBusby wasn’t trapped in the home.

“If someone had known he wasn’t there for any reason, they couldhave let us know,” said Ruth VFD President Kris Carter. “We’re gladthat it turned out that he wasn’t in there. It wouldn’t have beengood if he was.”