HEBRON – A family escaped their burning home on Birch Way early Tuesday in a fire that may have been caused by a propane heater.

Firefighters who responded to the home at about 12:35 a.m. found the single-family home fully engulfed and flames were licking at a nearby garage.

Hebron fire Chief James Trundy said the family escaped the house without injury, but by the time the flames were subdued, the home was a total loss.

Jason Nelson, who owns the house, was not insured, Trundy said. The garage and its contents were saved.

“It came in to us as a fully engulfed fire,” the chief said. “You hate for people to lose their stuff, but everyone was safe.”

With the house up in flames, fire crews from Hebron and other towns turned part of their attention to saving the two-story garage.

“There was no damage to that,” Trundy said. “That’s about all you can hope for when the fire has a head-start on you.”

Firefighters from Buckfield, Paris and Minot assisted Hebron at the scene while crews from Norway went to Hebron to man the fire station.

Fire officials inspected the burned remains of the house Tuesday morning but the exact cause was not found. Occupants of the home told investigators they had been using a propane heater around the time the fire started.

“Whether that was the cause or not, I don’t know,” Trundy said.

It was not immediately clear if Nelson and his family would rebuild.