140 Year old New Carlisle home destroyed by fire

NEW CARLISLE, Ind. -- A 140 year old house in New Carlisle was destroyed by fire Monday morning. The residents were not home at the time of the fire.



Fire crews spent several hours fighting the fire.



The homeowners said they found a map from 1872 that shows the home. The fire chief says that's part of the reason the fire was so hard to fight.



Deb Longworth owns the home at 7455 E 900 N in New Carlisle, but rents it out to a young family.

"We had a family living here. Everyone was at work and school so thank goodness for that," said Longworth.



New Carlisle, Kankakee and Galien fire departments fought the flames tirelessly for several hours.



"One of our neighbors notified me and it looked just too big. I didn't want to get my vehicle up close to it because the fire had already gotten really large," said Longworth.



The house was destroyed. All that is left is a pile of wet ashes and charred wood.



Longworth says her renters don't deserve this.



"She liked her gardening, they were feeding the birds, they were taking nice care of the place, just super renters," said Longworth.



The fire chief said crews had to fight the fire from the outside because the home was built with ash wood and the basement structure isn't stable.



"The house has always been fascinating to us because the farmers were getting started, it was not the best farmland and they built the house one section at a time," said Longworth.



The fire investigator said he is ruling the fire as accidental. He believes the fire started in the wood-burning stove the family used for heat.