Built on a hill, a house on Elgin Avenue NW in Canton is now burned beyond repair.
The man who lived there for more than 40 years, 74-year-old Steve Boger, lost nearly everything, including family heirlooms, photographs and his pet cat.
“I just loved this house. I had great dreams for it,” Boger said. “I had hoped to live here my entire life and that’s obviously not going to happen now.”
Around 5:30 p.m. on June 28, fire crews, who were responding to a highway accident, diverted to the house fire after seeing smoke.
They found heavy fire on the front porch extending to the interior of the two-story century home.
Initially, it wasn’t clear to rescue crews if Boger was inside the home.
Division Chief Steve Henderson said once firefighters got inside, they found a stubborn blaze and “hoarding conditions.”
“We were doing a difficult search trying to get through the debris and the hoarding conditions trying to find out if there was an individual inside,” Henderson said.
Henderson estimated firefighters spent 45 minutes rotating crews in and out of the burning structure, battling the flames, looking for Boger and moving stacks of stuff.