Investigators are looking into what sparked a morning fire that destroyed a Lakeville home. It broke out around 8:30 Wednesday morning in the 23400 block of Quinn Road in Southern St. Joseph County.

A neighbor called 9-1-1 after seeing smoke and flames coming from the old-style farmhouse. The homeowner rents out the residence, but no one is living there right now.

Firefighters spent hours trying to put out the blaze, and, at one point, were even forced to evacuate the burning home because the roof was about to collapse.

“It is a stubborn fire,” says Jason Casad Assistant Chief of the Lakeville Fire Department. “It is discouraging. The guys are in there working as hard as they can to try to get it to stop to minimize the damage, but sometimes it just does not work out that way for us, and we have got to think of the safety of the firemen first.”

Thankfully, no one was hurt. No word yet on what caused the blaze, but it appears to have ignited near the front part of the house, possibly on the porch.

Fire officials tell us the homeowner is, quote, "baffled" as to how it could have started since the house was empty.