THE SELMA TIMES-JOURNAL

Pauline King was dressed and on her way to a wedding about 5 p.m. Saturday when she smelled smoke.

A few minutes later King watched as flames rose 30 feet above the roofline. She was seated across the street from her 413 Dallas Avenue home as firefighters worked frantically to extinguish the blaze next door to her house.

King said the house next to hers was vacant, along with the second house down. As flames rose through the roof it spread to the house two doors up from King’s.

The home next to King in the 400 block of Dallas Ave. was totally destroyed. The house next to it received major damage to its exterior. Firefighters said the cause of the blaze is under investigation.

City attorney Jimmy Nunn, who lives on the next block, said the close proximity of the houses is why city codes have changed.

King said the ordeal changed her plans, and she wouldn’t be attending her friends’ wedding.