JONESVILLE — Residents on several Jonesville streets were without phone service for nearly two days after a truck attempting to make a turn severed a telephone line Saturday night.

The incident occurred around 9:30 p.m. at the intersection of South Main and Haile streets. Jonesville Police Chief Jimmy Wilkins said a semi pulled into a vacant lot in an attempt to turn around. Wilkins said as the driver attempted to get back into the street the trailer he was pulling snapped the phone line strung along Haile Street. He said this severed phone service for the residents of Haile, Webber and Fairbanks streets and some residents of Pecan Drive. Wilkins said service was not restored until early Monday afternoon.

The driver of the semi was identified as Jackie Curtis Cowart, 3007 Town and Country Road, Donaldsville, GA. Wilkins said Cowart was charged with malicious damage to property.

Car Fire

It was a pretty uneventful week for the Jonesville Fire Department until a car fire put them in the middle of the storm system that spawned a tornado warning late Sunday night.

Wilkins, who also serves as fire chief, said his department was distpatched to Industrial Park Road around 11 p.m. When they arrived, Wilkins said they found the car fully engulfed in flames. He said the car was parked on the side of the road since 5:30 p.m. because of a flat tire.

As they were battling the blaze, Wilkins said firefighters were notified that Union County was under a tornado warning. While firefighters didn’t see anything, Wilkins said they heard sounds that suggested the storm may have been bearing down on them. Despite this, Wilkins said firefighters continued to work until the fire was extinguished “then we got out of there.”

The cause of the fire is unknown but there were no injuries.

Standard Textile

The only other action Jonesville saw this past week was Saturday morning when the department had to deploy its mini-pumper to assist Bonham Fire Department in putting out a fire at the Standard Textile Plant at 100 Highpoint Road. Wilkins said a fire apparently broke out in a lint collection machine and spread to mechanism of a rollup door. Bonham’s equipment was unable to reach the location so Wilkins said Jonesville brought in its mini-pumper, drove it into the building and extinguished the fire.

There were no injuries.