Cicero, N.Y. -- A dog died Monday afternoon in a house fire in Cicero, firefighters said.
The fire at 6062 Smith Road was reported at 3 p.m.
Firefighters found heavy fire coming from the front of the house when they arrived, according to Patrick Brennan, the chief of the North Syracuse Fire Department. He said it took about 10 minutes to knock down the fire.
Smoke continued to pour out of the house for hours. Brennan said it took a significant amount of time to fully extinguish the fire because the house was built with plaster and lath walls, an older style of construction.
The delay also was due to a long wait for a lineman from National Grid, Brennan said. A lineman delicately climbed a telephone pole at about 4:15 p.m. with massive shears to chop the power lines running to the house.
After the power was off, two firefighters climbed aboard a ladder truck and used a high-pressure water nozzle to wash down the house.
No people were inside the house at the time of the fire.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
The fire was the second in two days in the southwestern section of Cicero. A house a half-mile away on Totman Road caught fire Sunday afternoon.