House fire on St. Joe River destroys home, residents escape unharmed

ST. JOSEPH TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- Devastating flames destroying a million-dollar home on the banks of the St. Joe River in Berrien County Monday. Firefighters dealt with a huge conflagration on Blackhawk Trail in Saint Joseph Township.

While the main fire is out, firefighters continued to deal with hotspots.

Those who live here were in the house when the fire started but were able to get out. Both township fire departments were on scene quickly and got to work to put out the main fire.

One obstacle firefighters have had to deal with Monday has been the roof collapsing, which resulted in the first floor going into the basement. That means no firefighters can get down to the basement for now.

"We’re going to do some investigating and try and figure out, it’s under investigation right now to see what happened, where it started from. After we get the fires out, then we will start going through and try and figure out what the source of the fire was. Right now, we’re just putting out hotspots, and we probably have a couple hours left on the scene here putting out hotspots, the main fire has been out for a few hours now though,” said Chief Brian Dean of the Saint Joseph fire department.

No injuries have been reported from those who were in the house at the time of the fire, or the crews fighting it all afternoon.