No one present when house burned down

A house fire near the Devon area over the weekend went unreported until the structure had burned to the ground.

Bourbon County Fire District No. 3 Chief Delwin Mumbower said a relative of the residents of a house at 1594 Tomahawk checked the house about 8:30 a.m. Sunday to find it destroyed. Mumbower said the residents were out of town and no one was inside the house at the time of the fire, which started after midnight Saturday or in the early Sunday morning hours.

“The granddaughter went by to check on the place since they were gone for the weekend and it was gone,” he said.

The single-story wood frame house, which was about 900 square feet, was burned to the ground. Mumbower said there was “nothing left but the foundation.”

“They were renting it,” he said. “We don’t know who the owners are.”

Mumbower said he also checked the scene Sunday morning. He said it is rare that a house fire is not seen and reported by someone.

“It’s well hid from the road and there are lots of trees around it,” he said. “And north of Devon, in the wee hours of the morning there’s not much traffic.

“It’s rare that something like that can go unnoticed,” he said. “Even if it’s too late, usually someone sees it.”

Mumbower said a cause of the fire has not been determined. He said the tenants did not have insurance on the home.

“It’s an old home that had some electrical issues,” he said. “They had replaced the breaker box.”