YELLOWKNIFE - Friday morning, Jennifer Pagonis was on her way to get some coffee when she noticed smoke billowing out from 224 Borden Drive.

Lt. Craig Halifax, left, advises two other firefighters as they direct a hose on a fire that broke out at a house on Borden Drive on Friday morning. - Jessica Klinkenberg/NNSL photo

It turned out to be a four-alarm house fire, one of several in recent days.

"Very rarely do I come this way. I saw a little smoke," said Jennifer Pagonis, who lives on Borden Drive a few doors down from the burned home.

Pagonis said she didn't have her cellphone on her at the time so she raced back home to call the fire department. She said it was approximately 9:22 a.m.

"It's horrific. Somebody's whole home is gone."

Pagonis said she watched the fire quickly spread.

"It went from what looked like a small deck fire to the whole (back) of the trailer."

After calling the fire department she, along with a few others, went and informed neighbours about the fire.

Chrystal Roberts said she spoke to one of the last people who had been in the house before it burned.

"She said she was the last person out and she said that she thought it was the furnace," Roberts said.

She said the teenaged girl told her she had been in the house the night before cleaning and was not in the house when the fire broke out.

Another neighbour, Roger Russell, said the homeowner's son said there was no one in the house when the fire broke out. Russell added that another neighbour told him the homeowner was in Calgary that day.

Deputy fire chief Chucker Dewar said the fire was so ferocious and burned so quickly that firefighters had to switch from offence to defence and hose down neighbouring homes to keep the fire from spreading.

"When you get into a defensive mode you've accepted the loss of the structure," Dewar said.

He said the turning point for the fire department came when the fire had spread into the roof and floor.

At that point, Dewar said firefighters knew for their own safety that it was better to pull out and attack the fire from outside of the structure.

The fire was attended by 24 personnel, two pumper trucks, one rescue truck, and two medic vehicles, according to a press release issued Friday afternoon.

One firefighter was taken to hospital with a "pulled muscle" but was released later that day.

Damage to the burnt-out home and its contents is estimated at $275,000.

The cause of the fire was still undetermined at press time.

By noon, the fire department had the fire almost completely extinguished and were searching the structure for sparks.