DURHAM – A wood stove was blamed for a fire Friday morning on Stackpole Road that left a Durham family of four homeless with only the clothes on their backs.

Lance and Sarah Milliken and their children, Lance, 12, and Lucas, 7, who were not at home when the fire started, are staying with Lance Milliken’s mother, who lives next door. The Red Cross is providing assistance.

According to Fire Chief Bill St. Michel, the fire was called in at 9:50 a.m. by a passerby and the plume of smoke could be seen as far away as Route 136. The home was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived, and extinguishing the fire became an “exterior operation.”

A representative of the state Fire Marshal’s Office was at the scene and confirmed the cause of the fire as the wood stove, St. Michel said.

St. Michel estimated the replacement cost of the 20-by-40-foot single-story wood-frame home at $100,000 and the contents at $50,000. The building was insured, but not the contents, St. Michel said.

Fire apparatus from Lisbon, Freeport, Pownal, Auburn and New Gloucester responded, and Freeport also sent an engine to cover the Durham fire station. The last of the trucks cleared the scene at 1:39 p.m.