MEXICO – A house fire on Backkingdom Road Saturday evening destroyed the home of a family with eight children.

“We’ll be calling the American Red Cross for assistance tomorrow morning,” said Chief Gary Wentzell. “The house is pretty much destroyed.”

Wentzell refused to identify the homeowners, since he had been unable to notify them of the fire. According to friends, the family was out of town, expected to return Sunday.

“We believe they’re in southern Maine or New Hampshire,” said Wentzell. “We’ve tried everything to get ahold of them.”

A neighbor at 32 Backkingdom Road called in the alarm at 5:01 p.m. when she noticed smoke coming from the house across the street.

Wentzell, who was first on the scene, saw flames shooting from the garage door. The windows of the 2 story farmhouse were black with smoke.

“It took about an hour and a half to get it under control,” said Wentzell. “We had to do a lot of ventilation, cutting holes in the roof, to get the heat out.”

No one was hurt in the blaze, which drew firefighters from several surrounding communities.

Wentzell said the humidity of the air coupled with the intense heat from the fire made it difficult to fight the flames. Firefighters from Rumford, Dixfield, East Dixfield, Peru and Canton rotated with the Mexico firefighters to bring down the blaze.

– Carol Coultas