"The flames were going up well above the tree line." Addie McClanahan looked out the window Wednesday morning and saw his neighbor's home engulfed in flames.
"I was in the house and my mother hollered at me and said she heard some explosions and by that time our electricity went out and when I came to look out the window I could see the house was on fire," says McClanahan.
He doesn't know his neighbor, but his heart still sunk. "I started worrying about the gentleman here, but it was so bad when I came out that there was nothing anybody could have done. It was an extremely big fire."
Sgt.. Chad Hill with the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department says crews first got the call around 10:30. "The house was completely engulfed and it spread to a location just north to another residence at that point in time they went into defensive mood, the fire department actually called for assistance from multiple other agencies."
Sgt.. Hill says there were three people living inside the home where the fire started. Two escaped, but a third was missing. "His vehicle is located here and most of the time if the vehicle's here, he would normally be at this location."
After a difficult three hours, crews were finally able to conduct a search.
"It looks like for a good portion of it, that a lot of the walls might have collapsed," says Hill.
Firefighters searching through what was left of the home, found a body buried in the rubble. Certainly not the outcome anyone was hoping for, but neighbors commend the crews who battled this tragic fire on a bitterly cold day.
"The fire department got here pretty quick and I do believe they did a good job," says McClanahan.
The body has not been identified and the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
