Firefighters from Landis, Locke and China Grove are at the former home of Erica Parsons at 218 Miller Chapel Road.
Few details are available yet, but a fire investigator at the scene said the homeowner, William Parsons, was doing repair work inside the house today. Damage was limited to the kitchen, and the cause is under investigation.
Initial reports said the fire began in a microwave.
Casey and Sandy Parsons recently settled an eviction notice from William Parsons — Sandy Parsons’ father — through an out-of-court settlement.
Casey, Sandy and their children had lived at the house since April 2011. That included Erica Parsons until late 2011, the last time she was seen in Rowan County.
The Parsonses have been in the public spotlight after Erica was reported missing more than two months ago by James Parsons, the couple’s biological son. James Parsons told Rowan County Sheriff’s detectives he’d not seen his sister for nearly two years.
Casey and Sandy Parsons have said they allowed Erica, then 13, to live with her biological grandmother, a woman they knew as Irene “Nan” Goodman.
The Parsonses told reporters this week they are heading to Louisiana in hopes of getting answers to the missing teen’s whereabouts. They say they are going to New Orleans, where Erica’s biological mother, Carolyn Parsons, lives. They say Carolyn is the key to Erica’s disappearance.