The Albany Fire Department was called to the scene of a house fire Saturday night at 11:04 p.m. on Hwy. 1590, across from Dr. Tracy Cross’ office. According to Fire Chief Robert Roeper, there is no known cause of the fire.

“We haven’t been able to get in there and determine where and why it started,” Roeper said.

Minutes after firefighters arrived at the scene, the work began to try to save the house. Roeper said he initially did not realize that the house had a basement, but as soon as that was discovered, he backed his crew out of the house.

“I had five guys in there and I backed them out. It was two minutes after I did that that the floor disappeared. I’m having a lot of trouble with that. If we hadn’t got out of there when we did, it could have easily cost them their lives,” Roeper said.

Roeper said his crew worked on keeping the neighboring properties from becoming involved after he realized there was nothing they could do to save the home that was engulfed.

“I don’t think there was any damage to the properties next to the house,” Roeper said. “I suspect the fire was burning in the basement for a couple of hours because it was so hot when we got there. The fire moved from the basement to the attic before it hit the first floor. It moved inside the walls and there was nothing we could do.”

At the time of the fire, Roeper said the house was unoccupied and that the person living there, Jim “Beanie” Robinson, was out of town.

“It’s a lot like losing a fight. You don’t ever want to lose a fight … but we lost this one,” Roeper said.