A man had to crawl out of his northwest Hall County home Thursday night after a neighbor called him to tell him it was on fire, according to another neighbor, Shirley Beck.

The resident, who declined to talk about the incident, was asleep when the blaze started, Beck and Hall County Fire Marshal Scott Cagle said. Beck said the man's wife "had to come home from work and see her house on fire."

The call came in about 5:30 p.m., and the 2,000-square-foot house in the 2900 block of Sky Lake Circle near Sardis Road was about 50 percent involved when firefighters arrived, Cagle said.

"It's just so scary," Beck said, standing outside the still smoldering house as firefighters continued to work. "Oh I just cried and cried. They've lost everything."

Beck said she saw the flames coming from the carport as she came home from work. An investigator hasn't yet determined what caused the blaze.