By CHRIS MEYERS
Staff writer

A Laud resident can be thankful her neighbor saw smoke coming from the roof and woke her up before the fire spread any farther in a Tuesday blaze that caused heavy damage to the home.
“The homeowner was sleeping at the time and the neighbor woke her up and got her out of the house,” Chad Nix, chief of the Jefferson Township Fire Department, said about the home in the 8000 south block of county Road 200 East.
Fire departments from Washington, Columbia and Cleveland townships and Roanoke also responded to the scene Tuesday afternoon.
Nix said the fire started in the garage and spread into the attic where it moved to the rest of the house.
“It’s probably going to be a total loss,” he said.
Because of the arrangement and stability of the attic, it took firefighters “a while” to get the fire under control.
“We were afraid of a collapse inside,” Nix said.
Within about an hour or so the fire was under control and crews then focused their efforts on the remaining hot spots.
The local American Red Cross chapter is offering assistance the residents of the home.
Jefferson Township crews returned to the scene later in the evening on a report of a rekindle, but found it was just some embers that were smoldering in trees near the garage of the home.
The Whitley County Fire Investigation Team was called to the scene, but Nix said he has not yet seen the report.