House fire on Cornell Drive yesterday in the College Park neighborhood of Lake Worth

This was the scene starting mid-afternoon (Friday, 3/25) in Lake Worth's College Park neighborhood:

What started as noticeable smoke coming out of the attic and roof soon turned into a 2-alarm fire. The house was a historic one, built in the Mission Revival style in the mid to late 1920s. It was always a well-kept home and nicely landscaped. The owners were away at the time and there were no pets in the house.

I've never seen so many rescue and emergency vehicles in my neighborhood before. The view above shows the area along Pennsylvania Drive, looking towards the corner of Cornell Drive.

Above is a "zoomed-in" picture of the firefighters on the roof of the home attempting to get the fire under control. The fire was in the attic and, according to reports, multiple areas were involved. While the Fire Marshal has not indicated a cause, a neighbor who talked to him said that the house will be a total loss. Very sad.

My suspicion, going on past experience and similar incidents, is the fire may likely have been an electrical one started by old "knob and tube" wiring. This is just a guess and have no evidence one way or the other. I know of another recent case of a West Palm Beach historic home where that type of wiring was to blame for a 2nd-story fire in a Mediterranean Revival house that resulted in a total loss of the structure.

Hopefully soon, we'll have the answer from the Fire Marshall.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the homeowners. There are so many people here in this neighborhood who will help in any way they can.