A fire in Sugar Grove Township destroyed a home on Gregory Lane late Thursday afternoon.
Volunteer firefighters from Lander, Starbrick, Garland, North Warren, Bear Lake and Youngsville plus Ashville, Frewsburg, Panama and Busti, N.Y., responded to 234 Gregory Lane and shut down traffic from Jones Hill Road to Matthews Run Road.
Sugar Grove Volunteer Fire Department Chief Gene Falconer said the owner of the home, Jack Gregory, was not home at the time and there were no injuries.
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A fire destroyed a home at 234 Gregory Lane in Sugar Grove Thursday afternoon. At least 10 different crews responded to the scene, and according to officials, no one was home or injured.
Falconer said the house was engulfed in flames when the crew arrived, and there was no water source because the house sits nearly a quarter mile off of the road.
"The first truck went in and set up on the house, the second one came in and dropped a line all the way from the house to the road," Falconer said. "then transferred water from a portable pond all the way down to the house."
Scott and Ryan Southwell said they called in the fire after they saw black smoke from the top of Rounds Hill. Initially, the Southwells said, they thought someone was burning brush.
"The pillar of smoke from the main road was either one of our oil wells (in the area) or somebody we know back here (burning brush)," Scott said.
The Southwells said they did not see the owner's vehicle at the home when they arrived at the house which was engulfed in flames.
"We turned the corner and the house was so hot. I knew the old guy drove an old Ford truck, it wasn't in the driveway, we yelled for anybody there, it's so hot," Scott said. "The bullets were going off in the house, so we had to get back, because there were a lot of shells going off."
"We didn't know what it was at first, and we didn't know if there was a propane tank nearby," Ryan said.