Fire chief Don Graham said three stations went out to try to put out the the fire on Hungerford Road just before 10 last night.
He said it took them nearly an hour to douse the heavy flames...but it was too late to salvage the buiding.
Graham said the hot... fast-moving fire had already burned through the roof when firefighters arrived.
While owners Shirley Simmons and Herbert Driskoll escaped unharmed, a few walls are all that's left of their house.
The Chief says investigators are still trying to figure out what caused it.
Boaters on Lake Tobesofkee should proceed with caution over the next few weeks.
Let's check in with Ben for an explanation. Ben?
Tomorrow....the lake's managers will start raising its level....six feet to its normal height.
They're warning people that hidden objects and sandbars will be dangerous to anyone out on the lake.
It will take some time to raise the level all the way....as the water will have to be replaced naturally.
<we'll start trying to bring it up to a normal level tomorrow. It'll take several weeks to get it up to normal depending on the rain. Hopefully we'll get a good bit of rain in the next few weeks and it'll come back up to normal.
Right now it's set at 354 feet above sea level. The computer will be reset to 360 feet above sea level, so any water that's coming in will stay in the lake. The gates will not open until it gets back up to that 360 feet level.
We lowered it on purpose to allow property owners around the lake to do work on docks, boathouses, sea walls, and also give us the opportunity to do much needed work on the swimming areas around the lake... Our boat ramps and dock areas.
Well there are a lot of sandbars and right now a lot of them are exposed and people are being very careful, but as the lake's rising up, if we get up 2 or 3 feet above what we are now, some of those obstructions are going to be right below the surface. And it creates a really dangerous situation.
Anybody coming out in a boat needs to be aware of that and go very very slow.
We wanna get it up to the normal level before the spawning season for fish and also before the boating season and swimming season.
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Furney told us today... he expects the lake to be full again by March.
All right, Ben. Thank you very much. Frank?