DINGESS —A brother and sister were left dead in the wake of an early evening fire that destroyed the house in which they lived Monday.

Ivan Gore, owner of the house located on East Fork of Twelve Pole, and his sister Madeline Baisden , both in their late 60s or early 70s, were overtaken by the fire, according to John Hall Jr., chief of the East Fork Volunteer Fire Department.

He said the fire department was called out between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Gore’s wife had returned from the hardware store where she had bought supplies to fix frozen waterlines only to find the house ablaze, Hall said. She was on the scene when firefighters arrived. Mrs. Gore said she had been trying to call out to her husband and sister-in-law but to no avail.

“She assured me (Gore and Basiden) were inside the house was did were not able to get out,” Hall said. “It took 2-1/2 hours to get the fire under control enough to begin looking for the bodies.”

He said the body of Baisden was recovered first in the living room area near the couch where spent most of her time because of mobility problems. Gore’s body was discovered afterward.

“We found (Gore) only about three feet from the door,” Hall said. “Yet, he was unable to get out.”

Gore was a member of the East Fork VFD’s board of directors, Hall said.

In addition to fighting the fire, responders to the Gore residence also had to battle several other obstacles in an effort to extinguish the fire.

“First of all there are no fire hydrants in that area and we had to call for mutual aid to get enough water to put out the fire,” Hall said. “Also, the creek was frozen and we had to chop holes creek to get to water.”

The Lenore and Main Harts Creek fire department responded to the call for assistance.

Hall said firefighters remained on the scene until 1:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The cause of the fire was undetermined as of presstime, however, Hall said no foul play is expected. He added that Mrs. Gore said several sources of heat including electric space heaters, a kerosene heater and a gas stove.

Stat Ambulance Service, Mingo County Coroner Mike Casey and Reed Cook with the state fire marshal’s office also responded to the scene. Hall said the highway department even came at his request for salt because the water being used to quell he blaze was freezing on the roadway and creating a hazardous situation.

“I would just like to encourage everyone to exercise caution when using space heaters and stoves for additional heating, especially right now when we are having the power going on and off combined with low temperatures,” Hall said. “We have had a lot of fires across Mingo County lately.”