AURORA, Indiana -- One body was found in the wreckage of a house fire in Aurora, Ind., on Tuesday, but the Dearborn County coroner said it could take weeks before the body is positively identified.
"She's burned beyond recognition," coroner Steve Callahan said.
Callahan and fire officials said "the assumption" is that the body is that of an elderly woman who lived in the home with her son and daughter-in-law.
"We'll probably positively identify her through DNA," Callahan said.
Fire officials told WCPO that an elderly woman and a dog were unaccounted for after the explosive house fire early Tuesday morning.
The county coroner was at the scene just before 8:30 a.m.
A man and woman who lived in the home were both taken to the Dearborn County Hospital. Officials said one person was discharged and the other was taken to UC Medical Center.
Officials said the fire started somewhere on the second floor of the single-family dwelling on the 100-block of Market Street around 3:40 a.m. Tuesday.
Neighbors watched and films the explosive fire early Tuesday morning; fire officials said the explosions heard early were oxygen tanks exploding in the blaze.
"We all have kids around here and we were all scared," said neighbor Melissa Grote. "The fire was on the telephone pole and we were scared the telephone pole would come down with the wires."
Grote said she has lived in the neighborhood for 14 years.
"It was unbelievable," she said. "I was woken up by my dog at 3 a.m. and I looked out the window to hear someone yell for help. The whole back of the house was totally engulfed, flames coming out of the rood. It was terrible."
Fire departments from Aurora, Lawrenceburg, Greendale, Rising Sun and Dillsboro, as well as police investigators and a canine unit were all called to the scene Tuesday.
