JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Three structure fires happened in Jackson Wednesday morning, all within a block of each other.

The fires started when two abandoned homes went up in flames off of Adelle Court and Sidway Street.

One man said the sound and flickering bright lights from the fire woke him up. Neighbors said the man who previously lived in one of the homes recently passed away.

“I smelled a lot of wood burning, like it was. It was messed up. My neighbor’s house in flames and some big flames, you know? And I’m like, wow. So, I get up when I come outside, I didn’t even notice that the second house was on fire, and they just feel crazy, a sad feeling because the man ain’t even been dead a year. So just to see these houses destroyed and that little memory that we did have, is… is messed up,” said Rico Buckley, a neighbor.

Phillip Brown, who is a deacon at the New Stranger M.B. Church, arrived at the scene after being notified about the church’s property catching fire.

“Me and another Capitol police officer, you know, we ran back there, and we look for a hose, and we begin to put out. It was a brush fire. Then the building in between the houses, it was on fire. So we, you know, we had to call backup on it,” Brown said.

The church originally planned to tear down the abandoned homes and develop the properties.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.