By Lori Ehde
Flames destroyed the rural home of Vicki Lenderts late Tuesday night, and fire officials are still working to determine a cause.
Fire fighters from Beaver Creek, Hills, Luverne and Valley Springs were called to the blaze, which apparently started sometime after 11 p.m.
Rick Tatge of the Beaver Creek Fire Department said flames were shooting from the second floor when his men arrived on the scene.
A neighbor reportedly made the 911 call at 11:26, but Lenderts and her boyfriend called it in at about the same time.
"I'm pretty much beside myself right now," she said at the scene. "I can't believe this is happening to me."
Four of five house cats escaped unharmed, but Lenderts said one is still unaccounted for.
She said she and her fiancŽ, Brad Gould, were downstairs watching television in the kitchen when they heard a popping sound upstairs and saw sparks coming down the stairwell.
As of press time, it was too early to determine a cause of the fire, but Lenderts said they were burning the wood stove, and she wondered if something started in the chimney.
Lenderts said her house was uninsured, but she said she has a place to live. Her mother, Margaret Lenderts, died Feb. 23, and that house, near Ellsworth, is sitting empty, still furnished.
Fire crews remained on the scene into the early morning hours Wednesday and returned to control flare-ups later Wednesday morning.