Fire guts Gettysburg residence

A fire at Heritage Lake destroyed a home at 600 Gettysburg early Wednesday. Several area fire departments responded to the scene.

The cause of an early Wednesday morning fire in Heritage Lake is still under investigation by Floyd Township Volunteer Fire Department.

At 1:33 a.m. Wednesday, county fire departments were dispatched to the home of Paul Baker, 600 Gettysburg, for a building fire.

According to Floyd Fire Chief Richard Wood, smoke was showing around the front of the large two-story home when firefighters arrived on the scene. But once they entered the home and went around back, the fire was all ready through the roof.

Wood said the fire went up the back corner of the home and then raced across the roof line from the inside.

Firefighters were able to stop the fire before it reached the garage, and were able to save some of the homeowner's things.

With temperatures hovering between the negatives and zero degrees, there was concern about the water freezing in the hoses and the trucks. Wood said even though they never really ran out of water with tankers shuttling water back and forth, several valves and pipes were freezing. Several firefighters had to bleed the hose lines to prevent the water from freezing inside the hoses.

Wood said they had the fire 90 percent out around 3:30 a.m., but the house was determined to be a total loss. Wood also said the house roughly cost anywhere between $200,000 to $300,000.

No injuries were reported, but one firefighter had been checked out by Operation Life after breathing in too much smoke and suffering from bronchitis.

Wood said the cause of the fire is still under investigation. Wood also said that he was leaning toward the cause being a chimney fire, since the homeowner had a fire going in the fireplace before the blaze started. But firefighters would be returning to the scene to continue their investigation later this morning.

Floyd Fire Department was assisted on the scene by Bainbridge, Fillmore, Mill Creek and Danville Fire Departments, with Greencastle Fire covering their station.

Also on the scene were Operation Life, Putnam County Sheriff's Depart-ment and the mobile unified command center.