WILTON – About 60 firefighters from eight towns fought a stubborn fire on Sunday afternoon that heavily damaged a renovated century-old Wilton house.

No one other than three cats and possibly a dog was home when the fire broke out about 2:52 p.m. at the Bill and Lois Fletcher home at 894 Orchard Drive, according to Wilton fire Chief Sonny Dunham. Two of the cats perished; officials were looking for the third cat and the dog.

“When we got here, (three sides of the building) were fully engulfed,” Dunham said at the scene late Sunday afternoon.

“We got inside to the second floor, but we couldn’t get upstairs. It was so hot, we couldn’t get there. The top ceiling collapsed,” he added.

Dunham said the fire started on the left-hand front and side of the house, which was a library. There was an office on the back side of the library and, upstairs, a bedroom.

He said the fire went up underneath the metal roofing and spread through the attic space.

More than three hours after the three-story house caught fire, firefighters were still peeling back metal roofing to get at flames inside the walls and eaves.

A towering column of black smoke could be seen for miles in all directions.

Water had to be trucked in by tankers from many of the responding departments, which in addition to Wilton, included, Chesterville, East Dixfield, Farmington, Jay, Livermore, Livermore Falls and Temple.

Other responders included a NorthStar Ambulance crew and Wilton police.

After sending assisting departments back to their stations and returning themselves, Wilton sent a firetruck and crew back to the scene at 9:15 p.m. to douse the house again.

A cause for the fire has yet to be determined.

Dunham said the house was insured and that a fire investigator from the State Fire Marshal’s Office was expected to arrive on scene by 7 a.m. Monday morning.

Dunham said firefighters were able to retrieve some of their antiques, but the couple lost almost everything.

He wouldn’t offer an estimate of the damage, pending the fire marshal’s inspection.

The Fletchers had gone for a ride and were not home when the fire erupted, Dunham said. They had lived there for 20 to 25 years and were still in the process of renovating it.

Two officials with the American Red Cross arrived by 6:30 p.m. to meet with and assess immediate needs of the Fletchers, who watched from an adjacent driveway. The Fletchers, whose family lives out of state, will be staying at the Colonial Valley Motel in Farmington for the next few days.