One person died in a house fire in Innisfil on the 2nd Line, near Dempsey Street, Wednesday morning.
When emergency crews arrived on scene at about 9 a.m., the home was engulfed in flames and heavy smoke.
A body was located inside the home after Innisfil fire crews extinguished the blaze.
Investigators from the Office of the Fire Marshal (OFM) have been dispatched to the scene.
Donny Crowder, of Hot Box Huts, said he saw the smoke from out on the ice this morning.
“We ran to shore and started breaking windows and trying to get in, but the house was already fairly lit up,” he told BarrieToday. “The blinds were literally melting beside our heads.
“The ashes from the house were blowing so high in the air that they were landing way out in the middle of the lake in our hut village," Crowder added.
Crowder, who lives just around the corner, said he and another man knew there was someone inside the bungalow, an elderly man.
“When we got there on scene, the one back wall of the house that had the chimney was all fully engulfed,” he said. “We tried to gain entry to other parts of the house, but every time we broke a window and tried to get in… it just blew up.
“It looked like a chimney fire. One of the clients mentioned that there was excessive smoke coming out of the chimney when they had passed by earlier," Crowder said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
South Simcoe police said no further information will be released pending a post-mortem examination and a positive identification of the victim.
Simcoe County paramedics were also on the scene.
