NORTHEAST FORSYTH -- A firefighter injured his shoulder Tuesday while on duty at a house fire near Lake Lanier in northeast Forsyth.

He was among about 30 personnel who responded to the blaze on Bethel Road adjacent to the lake about 3:30 p.m. June 21, Forsyth County Fire Department Division Chief Jason Shivers said.

“As he was trying to make the initial forced entry into the building, he did suffer a minor shoulder injury and has been taken to an urgent care center for treatment,” Shivers said.

A couple other firefighters “had to be pulled out of operations for exhaustion” due to the intensity of the heat, the humid weather and the access to the property.

The home, about 2,000 square feet, sits at the end of a long private driveway about 1,800 feet off Bethel Road.

There was no room to move trucks in and out, so the first ones that got there had to stay while water was drawn through two engines worth of hoses from a hydrant on Bethel Road.

“That took a considerable amount of time just to get the water supply operation in place and begin providing positive water on the scene,” Shivers said.

He said exhaustion injuries are “nothing that’s not expected” and that they “come with the job.”

All firefighters have made a recovery since.

Four adults occupied the residence as a rental, Shivers said. No one was inside the home when the blaze began.

They had been out on the lake, Shivers said, and as they boated back to their dock they saw smoke coming from the shore. Once they realized it was coming from their home, they called 911.

The home was deemed a total loss, Shivers said. Two vehicles and a motorcycle parked in a car port adjacent to the building sustained damage, too.

The 30 emergency personnel who responded – including four engine companies, one ladder company, an ambulance, staff officers, investigators and all three tankers – were more than “what a normal structure fire requires” due to the access challenges the property presented.

A cause and origin of the fire, as well as whether it was accidental or suspicious in nature, has not yet been determined, as the incident remains an active investigation, Shivers said. Personnel returned to the scene Wednesday to continue the investigation.