Flames destroyed two homes in Cairo.
The fire started in one home early Tuesday morning and it spread to another before crews were able to put it out.
No one was inside either home at the time but the fire is a set-back for a man trying to setup his business.
"I can say I'm thankful to be alive. I made it out OK," William McMillen said. "My girlfriend is OK and that's the main thing: we got out."
McMillen owns two homes on 34th Street in Cairo. One of those homes went up in flames.
"So me and my girlfriend got up in the cold, and when I came outside, the house on the corner here on 34th Street was totally engulfed," McMillen said. "It was already three-quarters of the way gone, burnt up"
The fire started in one home then spread to the other destroying everything inside.
McMillen says he used the home for storage but was renovating it so he could run his lawn mowing business out of it.