Photo by Rob Schmidt / St. Joseph News-Press / Purchase this photo

Onlookers show support for Erica Barton (left-center) as she consoles her son Mason after a morning fire destroyed their home Fridayat 6315 Grant St.

A mother and her two sons escaped with only the clothes on their backs as fire consumed a one-story frame home on the South Side Friday. No one was injured in the blaze.

“I’d been folding clothes in the back room and saw a light,” said Erica Barton, who’s lived in the house at 6315 Grant St. for three years.

Mrs. Barton said she looked at the closet, saw flames, dropped the clothes, ran grabbing her two sons and fled the home in her stocking feet with the fire pursuing.

“That fire exploded out of the closet,” said John Nelson, the St. Joseph Fire Department battalion chief at the scene.

Dispatch scrambled five engines to battle the blaze at 10:10 a.m. Friday. A third of the house was fully involved as units arrived on the scene to see flames shooting out of several windows.

The fire was moving rapidly through the house and reached temperatures in excess of 600 degrees, Mr. Nelson said.

Firemen ran several main lines into and around the house in an effort to gain control of the flames.

Mr. Nelson said he was concerned for the safety of firefighters because initially the flames were over their heads as they entered the home.

The screams of emptying oxygen bottles could be heard above the rumbling sound of the fire engine motors as fireman exited the home about 15 minutes after arriving on the scene. Units remained on the scene for another hour as firemen were cutting holes in the roof with axes and power saws and pulling down the ceiling looking for hot spots.

The house and its contents are a total loss, Mr. Nelson said.

The Midland Empire Chapter of the American Red Cross was called to the scene to provide assistance to the family.