A Canton man arrived home to discover a fire raging inside the house.

CANTON  A man arrived home Wednesday afternoon to discover fire raging inside his house at 1221 26th St. NE.

"Fire was in the basement," said Battalion Chief Dan Reed of the city Fire Department at the scene. "We are not sure of the cause yet. We have an investigator en route."

Firefighters responded to the blaze at 4:50 p.m. Wednesday. The damage appeared to be confined to the interior of the single-story house. The owner and occupant was identified as George Rohde. As he arrived home and opened the door, he was greeted with smoke billowing out, according to Reed.

Temperatures were in the low teens.

"Crews initially tried to make entry in that (side) door, and soon discovered the floor was burned out," Reed said. "It extended up some walls. We had to open them up to make sure the fire was extinguished."

The hole in the floor was in front of the side-entrance door. Firefighters chose to enter the house through a rear basement door.

While at the scene of the fire, firefighters did not have an estimate of the damage.

Reach Malcolm at 330-580-8305

or malcolm.hall@cantonrep.com

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