The home at 25 Ciemny Lane burned down Dec. 6.
Bella Vista Fire Department received the call shortly after 8 p.m. and arrived on scene to find the house fully involved, casting a bright orange glow into the night. The rear portion of the house's roof collapsed early on.
The residents, Matthew Lucy and his sister Ashley Patten, were not home at the time. The only occupants in the home were three dogs and one cat, which most likely did not escape. There were no human injuries reported.
"It was basically determined that we were going to fight the fire defensively. The structure was a total loss," Fire Chief Steve Sims said.
According to Benton County property tax records, the home was valued at $83,450.
Teams set up a perimeter to ensure the fire didn't spread to the surrounding woods. Blackened leaves could be found near the home after the fire.
Sims said he was proud of his department's work.
Fire Capt. Seth Kallick, who investigated the fire, said he believes it was accidental in nature and started near the home's wood-burning stove.
"It's one of those times where if it was something other than the stove, it would be impossible to prove," he said. "To say it wasn't a mouse that chewed a wire would be impossible."
The stove, he said, did not appear to be defective, and the homeowner had performed the normal maintenance that a stove requires, including cleaning the chimney before the season started.
"It was nothing they had done," Kallick said.
The first reports the department received, he said, placed the fire around the chimney, and what he saw on-scene during and after the fire suggested the fire started high and worked its way down. The basement, he said, was mostly burned on the top half.
The home in question, he said, was an older home. Because of the relatively thin, eighth-inch-thick wooden paneling and lack of fire breaks, he said, these homes tend to burn very quickly.
"When they go, they go 'whoof' and then it's all done," Kallick said.
General News on 12/14/2016