| By Neil Johnson, reporter/anchor, Big Radio |

An official says local fire crews were unable to save a home in a town of Turtle fire that displaced two people in brutally cold conditions early Wednesday.

Town of Turtle Fire Chief Jason Rowland tells Big Radio his crews and 17 other fire departments spent hours fighting a house fire at 10202 S. Clinton Corners Rd. It was first reported by town police around midnight Wednesday.

Rowland says it’s unknown how the two-story farmhouse caught fire, but he says stiff winds sped up the blaze, and subzero weather hampered firefighters who needed to truck in water in tanks on snow-covered rural roads. No firefighters were injured in the windblown blaze, which played out as temperatures dipped to -15 in the early morning hours.

Rowland says firefighters were on scene until 9 a.m. Wednesday, a full nine hours after the fire was first reported.

He says all that remains of the house is the basement level, which also is destroyed.

Two longtime residents there safely evacuated with their pet cat, and were in a vehicle on the property when firefighters arrived, Rowland says. The American Red Cross is assisting them.

The home is located on a rural blacktop that’s 10 minutes away from the separate headquarters of both the town of Turtle and Clinton fire departments, the two closest fire stations.

An investigation into the blaze is ongoing, but Rowland says given the destruction the fire wrought, officials may never know what caused it.