WILTON – A fire destroyed a home on Depot Street late Saturday night, Fire Chief Sonny Dunham said Sunday. The cause is being investigated by the State Fire Marshal’s Office.

Homeowners Mike and Karen Flagg had moved from Wilton to Turner before the fire, so the house was vacant Saturday night, Dunham said. The home was also insured.

Five fire departments were called to the scene between 10:30 and 11 p.m., Dunham said. The two-and-a-half-story house, which had an attached barn, was fully engulfed in flames by the time Dunham arrived.

“We had to fight it externally,” he said.

“It was a really, really, really big fire,” said onlooker Floyd Patrick. “It took the whole house out. The flames were actually shooting over the next-door house. I saw it from my house so I went up there. I heard the fire engines go by, looked out my window and the whole background was lit up,” he said.

A maple tree in the Flagg’s front yard helped contain the heat and keep the fire from spreading to the two houses on either side, but firefighters evacuated both families anyway, Dunham said.

“I was sleeping – I woke up only after I heard the fire truck pull up to the hydrant near our house,” Becky Patrick (not related to Floyd Patrick), who lives nearby, said Sunday night. “The flames were well above the trees.”

“At least they (the family) weren’t there,” she said.

Mutual aid, in the form of firefighters and equipment, came from Farmington, Chesterville, Jay and East Dixfield, Dunham said. Around 50 firefighters and 12 pieces of equipment responded, he said, and many didn’t leave the house until 4 or 5 p.m. on Sunday. “They were there all day.”