MOUNT VERNON — A fire completely destroyed an unoccupied house at 12700 Ward Road, south of Brandon, early this morning. A passerby noticed smoke and reported the fire shortly after 6:30 a.m.

The Homer Fire Department responded, and Lt. Tom King arrived and reported a working structure fire. Mutual aid was requested from Utica, Mount Vernon, Hartford and the Central Ohio Joint Fire District.

“We have a house that’s unoccupied that was fully engulfed when we got here,” Homer Fire Lt. Marvin Haught said as crews worked from inside and outside the home. “It was already through the roof.”

As firefighters peeled back the metal roof at the top of the house, Chuck and Denise Whitt stood watching the burning home they had shared for years, but recently lost in foreclosure.

“I remodeled all this place,” Chuck said. “I added the siding, everything. I lived here for 26 years.”

Denise said the family fell on hard times recently when Chuck’s work hours were cut. Her florist shop on Main Street in Utica, Deni’s Daisies and Designs, is also for sale.

“We’re living in a shed behind my dad’s house,” Chuck said.

Denise said the couple has checked on the property about once a week, but has never found any problems.

The Whitts believe people may have been around the property recently, after finding beer bottles in the fire pit, but they said they had found no damage inside the residence.

Homer Fire Chief Randy King requested assistance from the Knox County Chapter of the American Red Cross. Crews remained on the scene late this morning.

“We quickly extinguished the fire and now we’re just overhauling it,” Haught said. The State Fire Marshal’s Office was contacted to request an investigator be sent to the scene today.