Fire destroyed a house at 91 Pope Road early Monday morning and officials say the damage was too extensive to pinpoint a cause of the blaze.

The homeowner, Prentice Lander, woke just after 2 a.m. to the sound of fire crackling in a wall. He tried to douse it with an extinguisher but it had grown too large and he fled and called the fire department, said Windham Fire Chief Brent Libby.

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About two dozen firefighters responded to find flames coming from the 1½-story house.

“Shortly after crews tried to make entry, there was fire through the roof and so we had to pull back and fight it from the outside,” Libby said.

The fire started in a wall behind the furnace area, in the same general location as some electrical equipment and a woodburning stove, Libby said.

“Initially we were certainly leaning to a definite woodstove issue, but it’s going to go undetermined,” Libby said. “It may have been electrical, may have been a woodstove, may have been something else.”

Crews from Gorham and Westbrook responded to help Windham fight the fire.

The building had a metal roof that trapped the heat and posed a challenge to firefighters trying to vent the heat and smoke from the building. Eventually, once the fire was under control, crews used an excavator to peel back the roof to get at hot spots, he said. Crews were able to leave the scene at 11 a.m.

Nobody was injured in the fire. The homeowner was the only one inside at the time, Libby said.

Libby complimented Lander on clearing the area around the house, particularly entrances, which made it easier for firefighters to fight the fire.

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