House fire near Fennville

GANGES TOWNSHIP, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - A morning fire destroyed a country home in rural Ganges Township.

The house was on 64^th Street, just off M-89 west of Fennville.

No one was hurt in the fire as the owners were vacationing up north at the time. They headed home as soon as they got the call, but it was a difficult return.

Lisa Reeves' parents, Margie and Daril Valentine, own the home. They were vacationing at Mackinaw when they got the call that their house of 20 years was on fire.

"They're happy because they know they're together and their dogs, there were no lives lost, but to them, they've lost everything," said Reeves.

Two hours after the fire started, fire crews were still spraying down the house in case anything flared back up. Reeves and her brother tried to salvage a few things, but there wasn't much left.

The original call came in at 9:40 Wednesday morning, and fire crews say that when they arrived the smoke was so thick the house couldn't be seen.

"We could see the smoke from about five miles away," said Douglas Compton, Ganges Township Fire Chief. "When we left the fire station, we could see the smoke in the air."

Reeves said she has little doubt that her parents will rebuild after the loss, but that doesn't take away the memories that are still fresh in their minds.

"They really enjoyed sitting on their porch, they had porch swings out there and every night I could call out here and they'd be sitting on their swings, just talking with their dogs," said Reeves.

The Fire Chief says the insurance company will continue looking for the cause of the fire. Currently they aren't sure how it started, but say they have no reason, at this point, to consider the fire suspicious.