(Union Mills, IN) - A house was destroyed by fire in Union Mills on New Year’s Eve.

Firefighters were called before 6 a.m. to the area of Sand Road and County Road 450 West. La Porte County Police said a county highway department snow plow driver passed the house about 30 minutes earlier and didn’t see anything.

When he returned to make a second pass, though, the driver discovered the house to be fully engulfed by smoke and flames, police said.  He stopped and pounded on the door of the residence but nobody was home.

Police said the owner, Joshua Weinkauff, left about an hour prior to the fire and was in Westville when reached by authorities.  The cause of the fire was under investigation.