A Thursday fire at 518 Beauregard Street in Rockmart left a house heavily damaged and firefighters requiring on-site medical relief to prevent heat exhaustion, according to Rockmart Fire Department Chief Todd Queen.

Queen said the call came in shortly after noon and the older, single-family wood frame house was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived.

He said no one was home at the time of the fire. The property is owned by Odge Philpot.

A cause of the fire has not been determined and it remains under investigation.

It took firefighters more than 45 minutes to control the blaze and another two hours to put out “hot spots” and ensure the fire was completely extinguished, Queen said.

Part of the difficulty was that firefighters had to keep the firefighting to an outside operation because of the extent of the fire.

He said heat was another factor.

“It was a difficult fire to manage with the dry conditions this time of year and with the heat,” Queen said.

“Summer firefighting especially in the afternoon are a difficult operation to handle because you’re dealing with upper temperatures and humidity.”

He said firefighting gear is heavy and doesn’t breathe, so crews have to be rotated out quickly and provided with a relief tent. Queen said he used every off-duty firefighter Thursday to rotate crews out.

He also said Redmond Emergency Medical Services (EMS) provided the medical relief tent and Rockmart Police Department provided crowd control.