PERRY, Ga. — Flames engulfed a Perry family dental office Sunday night, destroying the 20-room practice.
"The flames were pretty big; the whole roof was on fire," Joseph Pierce said about the dental office.
Decades of a family dentistry practice, R Thomas Pierce Dental Office, were engulfed in flames.
"This building was built in 1979. My father built it. He's a dentist and he's been practicing here ever since," Joseph Pierce explained.
Pierce was away from the office when he received the call alerting him that his Perry practice as he knew it would change.
"I received a call about 9:00 yesterday evening that there was smoke in the office, and then I received the fire alarm text from our security company," Pierce recalled.
A woman with a cleaning crew was at the office when she believed she smelled smoke.
"When they got upstairs and opened up one of the doors to the upper room, when they opened one of the doors they were greeted with a bunch of smoke and immediately shut the door," Perry's Assistant Fire Chief Kirk Crumpton said.
Putting out the fire took a crew of 30, with Perry and Houston County fire departments working for about 5 hours.
"All the signs indicate that we did have an attic fire. Our initial crews when they arrived on scene, the downstairs floors were clear of smoke, but we did have flames and smoke, as you can see from the building behind me. We had smoke coming from each end of the building," the chief said.
After the flames and damage, Pierce says it’s his desire to build back that burns strongly.
"It is a little bit bitter, but it'll be better than ever," Pierce said.
Though the building was a loss, no one was hurt in the fire.
Pierce says while they work to rebuild, their Warner Robins office will remain open.