Firefighters work to extinguish a house fire on Clover Dell Lane in rural Waterloo late Saturday night. (Kermit Constantine photo)

The Waterloo, Maeystown, Valmeyer and Columbia fire departments responded along with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department and Monroe County EMS to a fully engulfed farm house at 3731 Clover Dell Lane off Old Baum Church Road shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday.

Heavy flames could be seen shooting from the structure upon arrival. The house, which is owned by Betty Leber but has been unoccupied for some time, appears to be a total loss.

Neighbor Jeff Bakken made the 911 call upon seeing the flames and checked the home to make sure there was no one inside. The home was quickly filling with smoke, so he called out to see if anyone was in the home and then retreated. No injuries were reported in the blaze.

The Waterloo Fire Department returned to the scene of the blaze at about 7:30 a.m. Sunday to extinguish a rekindling.

“The fire was visible from the city limits of Waterloo, so we knew we had a large structure engulfed in flames,” Waterloo Fire Chief Brett Wiegand told the Republic-Times.

Wiegand said that in addition to the fiery farm house, firefighters had to contend with a downed live power line until the power company arrived to disable it.

“With all of the help from the surrounding departments, we were able to extinguish the fire within a few hours,” the chief said.

An exact cause of the fire has not been determined at this time, but Wiegand believes it originated near their butchering area on the east side of the home.