HANCOCK COUNTY — A fire destroyed a home in the southern part of the county early Friday.
Three occupants made it out safely, but several pets were killed and several remained missing Friday afternoon, according to a fire official.
Firefighters responded to the blaze at about 5:20 a.m. in the 5700 block of South County Road 100W. Dean Tyner, chief of the Fountaintown Fire Department, said the south end of the single-story modular home was engulfed in flames upon the arrival of first-responders from his department and the Sugar Creek Township Fire Department.
“Sugar Creek’s engine and our engine crew established an attack and water supply,” Tyner said, adding tanker trucks were called in from other departments. The fire’s rural setting meant water had to be dumped into a tank set up on scene from which to draw water for battling the blaze.
It didn’t take long for the flames to spread throughout the home, Tyner continued.
“It pretty much burned throughout,” he said. “It was already pretty well involved by the time we got there.”
It took firefighters about an hour to get the fire under control, Tyner said, adding they remained on scene for about another couple hours after that.
Three people who were in the home at the time of the fire escaped without injury, Tyner said. He added two dogs and one cat were found dead in the rubble and that three cats were still missing as of Friday afternoon.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation Friday afternoon. Tyner said the Indiana State Fire Marshal’s Office had been out to the scene and would be reaching out to him. The company providing insurance coverage for the home sent a private fire investigator out as well.
Along with Fountaintown and Sugar Creek Township, firefighters also responded from Greenfield, Morristown, Fairland, Moral Township in Shelby County and Indianapolis.
