CANTON, S.D (KELO) –A fire in the central part of Canton Tuesday afternoon destroyed a home and left one man dead.

This is all that’s left of a home on North Dakota Street, in the central part of town. There are holes where there were once windows, part of the roof has burned away and the siding is charred.

“We got a call that the fire started at approximately 2:11 p.m. yesterday when we arrived on scene the house was fully engulfed,” said Troy Swenson, Canton Chief of Police.

And it appeared to have been burning for awhile.

According to an obituary from the Anderson funeral home, Jordan Brende, 32, died in the house fire. 

“The reporting party stated that the fire was already coming out one or two of the windows. So it had quite an advanced far before it was noticed,” said Harold Timmerman, Lincoln County Emergency Management Director.

Crews from Canton, Harrisburg and Worthing responded and did everything they could.

“We suspected someone may be in there but we couldn’t confirm it until we had the fire out,” Timmerman said. “The fire was so intense, we couldn’t get inside and the structure was compromised.”

Crews battled the flames for four hours. Once they finally had the fire out, they recovered a body of a man.

“It was a young gentleman, that lived here and perished in the home,” Timmerman said.

Timmerman says this is one of the worst fires that Canton has seen this year. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The Canton City Police Department as well as the fire marshall are expected to put out a full report by the end of the week with details on the investigation.