Published: October 08, 2008 09:11 pm         

Blaze destroys northern Vigo County residence

TERRE HAUTE — Smoke still was pouring from a northern Vigo County home Wednesday afternoon as three fire departments dampened out the remains.

A passerby called 911 at 12:45 p.m., informing them that the home at 10285 Rosedale Road was engulfed in flames.

“The only way we found out is we have a “For Rent” sign out there and they called us after 911,” homeowner Dennis Brannon said, holding his wife, Kathy.

The Brannons’ property has mobile homes off to a side they lease out, and the For Rent sign had a phone number on it, he explained.

“When we arrived it was fully engulfed,” a spokeswoman for the Otter Creek Volunteer Fire Department said as she removed her smoke gear.

Otter Creek came to assist Rosedale and Nevins Volunteer Fire Departments, she said.

Vigo County sheriff’s deputies blocked both ends of the road for several hundred feet

The cause of the fire was under investigation.

“We have no idea,” Dennis Brannon said. “We weren’t here.”

The Brannons were having lunch with family just down the road when they got the call, they said.

The family hosts foster children as well as their own and currently have four kids in the household, ages 12, 13, 14 and 15.

The girl is 12 and the rest are boys, they said.

“I don’t think there’ll be anything in there they can wear,” the father said, watching smoke pour out of multiple holes in the roof at 1:25 p.m.

“As long as it’s not my kids or my animals,” Kathy Brannon said, leaning on a fence behind which stood the family’s horses. “Material things you can buy.”

Dennis Brannon said he didn’t believe the stove had been left on and noted the furnace was off.