A fire Saturday night destroyed a two-story home in the Cedar Cove subdivision off Highway 80 East in Gallion.

The Gallion Volunteer Fire Department received a call at approximately 10:27 p.m. Saturday concerning a fire in a house owned by Joe Tidmore at 1750 Cedar Cove, said Joe Lins, assistant fire chief with the Gallion VFD.

No one was home at the time.

Trucks from Gallion, Faunsdale and Spring Hill VFD’s responded and arrived on the scene in 10 to 15 minutes, he said. Approximately 20 firefighters from the combined departments fought the blaze.

The carport was already gone by the time the firefighters arrive, Lins said. The front porch and the whole West side of the house was burning.

Firefighters returned to the site three times to put the fire out. The way the structure caved in on itself kept restarting the fire, he said. "It was the way it fell – stacked up. It was burning up under it. We couldn’t get in there under the bricks to get it out. It just kept firing up."

They left at 4 a.m. on Sunday, but they were called back at 6 a.m. until 11, and then returned again Sunday evening.

The state fire marshal was expected to arrive Tuesday to investigate the cause of the blaze, Lins said.