Fire crews were called to the scene of a house fire about two miles northwest of Kleefeld on Sunday afternoon. 

The District Fire Chief for Kleefeld John Schroeder explains the situation. "Call came in as possible garage fire and when we arrived, the garage was totally involved and partially collapsed already. There was fire in the house. We tried working from the inside but eventually it turned into a defensive fire."

Schroeder notes that the residents were not at home. "They were gone, apparently they were across the street. No people were hurt."

There was a large firefighter presence on the scene. "I think there's about 15 or 20 of us." Schroeder explained. "There's three departments here, Grunthal's here along with Kleefeld and New Bothwell's here as well."

As of 5:33pm, Schroeder and crews have been on the scene for around 3 hours and will remain for a few more hours. He explains what is left to do. "Well, it looks like we're gaining. There's still a lot of smoke, a lot of heat coming from somewhere. We're going to start cutting holes in the walls. We can not access the house from the roof or the basement, but we've got to try and find the hot spots."

With the amount of structural damage to the residence, Schroeder also notes the safety concerns the firefighters are dealing with. "Ceiling collapsing and material falling, that's the biggest risks." 

More details to come.