Home owners in one community are worried their homes may catch on fire because of what they say was negligence at the hands of their utility company.

According to some residents of Laurence Street in Dunnellon, Progress Energy did not properly maintain tree limbs surrounding their power lines. Last Wednesday, a falling branch took out several lines, causing a power surge.

The outage ruined several of their appliances including a refrigerators, flat screen TV, and a computer.

The group submitted claims to Progress Energy, but they were denied.
The electric giant told TV20 the limb that caused the surge was not their responsibility to trim since it was high above, in the canopy.

The group states they had called Progress Energy several times to tell them about the hazardous tree limbs.

Last Wednesday's incident was the third of it's kind in the last couple of months at these two homes. Progress Energy repaired lines during those incidents, running them through the same set of trees.