Lakeville home destroyed by fire

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. --  A home on Quinn Road in Lakeville was destroyed by fire Wednesday morning.

The fire started around 8:30 a.m.

The raging fire off of Quinn Road sent smoke billowing out of the two story home.

Smoke from the fire stretched hundreds of feet in the air where it could be seen for miles.

"When the first truck arrived on the scene, the first floor of the house was on fire and it was extending up into the second story of the residence,” said Jason Casad, Assistant Chief of Lakeville Fire Department.

It was a familiar fire pattern.

"We went to an offensive attack and the fire was in the wall trying to go up into the attic so we went in there to do the offensive attack and get the fire under control,” said Casad.

Firefighters quickly learned control wasn't an option, evacuation was more important.

"We had to go pull everybody out of the house. The ceiling was too unstable, the roof's getting ready to go so we had to pull everybody out,” said Casad.

Smoke poured out of the attic while firefighters looked on, unable to put out the flames until the roof caved in.

"It's just a waiting game now, we'll wait for it to go through the roof and then put the water on it, put it out that way,” said Casad.

Four hours later, after the structure finally gave way, firefighters had a way to get ahead of the fire.

"It's a stubborn fire. It's discouraging. The guys are in there working as hard as they can to try and get it to stop to minimize the damage, but sometimes it just doesn't work out that way for us,” said Casad.