Brunswick firefighters, aided by county firefighters, battled a fire on Amherst Street Friday that spread from one house to two adjacent houses.

The fire started at about 6 p.m. in a house at 1626 Amherst St. and spread quickly to two others on either side, at 1624 and 1628 Amherst.

The adjacent houses ignited quickly because of heat of the flames and because they were about six feet from the burning house, Brunswick Fire Chief Lee Stewart said.

The house where the fire start was destroyed and the other two may have been, Stewart said as the fires burned. No injuries were reported.

Six units from the Brunswick and Glynn County fire departments, including Glynn County volunteers, were called in to fight the fires.

The first firefighters at the scene searched the adjacent houses to be certain that no one was in them. "The middle house (where the fire started), we were told it was abandoned," said Stewart.

Workers from Georgia Power were called in to shut off electricity to the three houses to help protect firefighters battling the flames.

"Firefighters had two minutes to get here, and by the time they got here, two other house were involved," Stewart said.

Terry Lane, 41, who lives behind the three burned houses, at 1628 1/2 G Street, said she was sitting in her house when she noticed the fires.

"I just happened to hear some crackling sounds and I was smelling something, so I went to the door," she said. "And when I went to the other side I saw all the flames."

By 7:10 p.m. firefighters had controlled the fires. Fire officials did not know initially what had started the fire.