Fire Chief Randy MacDonald said the 911 call came in just before 1 p.m.
"There was nobody home at the time of the fire. However, the property owner was on site,'' MacDonald said. "Preliminary investigation at the scene shows it was possibly caused by a pipe being thawed.''
Flames weren't visible from the structure but there was a lot of smoke on the frigid day, especially when firefighters started to pull back on the roof.
MacDonald said the fire started on the first floor and advanced to the second floor.
"Crews are doing what we call an overhaul, pulling back on the wood and tearing the wall apart to make sure the fire didn't extend through the wall and has been extinguished.''
Another big concern was the home right next door. There wasn't much more than a foot between the two homes so firefighters had one hose concentrated on that area.
"We were quite concerned about that but we've got a good handle on that now.''
Station 1 had four trucks and 35 firefighters at the scene. Station 2 was called in to provide backup at Station 1's facility on Kent Street, just in case another call came in.
A worker with Maritime Electric was also at the scene to cut the power to the home that sustained the damage and to the structure next door.
MacDonald couldn't say if the home was gutted but from the outside that appeared to be the case.
"I haven't seen the interior of it yet but I would suspect that there's plenty of fire damage.''
One person who was walking in the area at the time stated what many were thinking.
"It's such a sad way for someone's year to end,'' the man said.