A Rochelle man was identified as the victim of an early Sunday morning fire on South Thorpe Road west of Rochelle, Ogle County Sheriff Brian VanVickle said Monday.

James Supancic, 84, of Rochelle, was killed in the blaze, according to VanVickle. The Ogle County Sheriff’s Office and area fire personnel were called at 2:07 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 18, to 6080 S. Thorpe Road for the structure fire.

Upon arrival, the second story of the house was completely engulfed in flames. The Rochelle Fire Department extinguished the fire with assistance from surrounding agencies.

The cause of the fire is currently under investigation by the Ogle County Sheriff’s Office Detective Bureau and the Illinois State Fire Marshal. VanVickle said the preliminary cause of the fire is suspected to be a supplemental heat source.

RFD Chief Dave Sawlsville said Monday that after arriving to the home’s second floor being fully engulfed in flames, fire personnel attempted to bring a ladder to the upstairs windows to locate Supancic, to no avail.

“With the wind and the home being in the country, the fire spread pretty quickly,” Sawlsville said, “That was a situation where we wouldn’t put firefighters on the second floor due to safety. We had more response come and the home was fully involved with fire and we took a more defensive approach. We had to fight the fire from outside. The rest of our time there was spent on debris removal and locating the deceased.”

Sawlsville said 911 was called by a second resident in the home, who was taken to Rochelle Community Hospital and then OSF St. Anthony Medical Center in Rockford with burns and smoke inhalation.

The home at 6080 S. Thorpe Road was a total loss. No other structures on the property were damaged. Ogle County Animal Control took some dogs from the property into their care and there were farm animals on the property, including geese, miniature horses and goats. Sawlsville said the coming days will show how those animals were affected by smoke inhalation.

No first responders were injured, Sawlsville said.

“We had to truck in water because there are no hydrants in that area and we relied on our mutual-aid partners for that,” Sawlsville said. “That was good to have. It was super cold. There were high winds. I think the fire got a pretty good head start on us. We were behind when we got there. We focused on getting to the trapped individual when we got there rather than on the fire. That let it grow.”

Along with RFD and the Ogle County Sheriff’s Office, responding agencies included the Rochelle Police Department, Hillcrest Fire Department, Oregon Fire Department, Stillman Valley Fire Department, Lynn-Scott-Rock Fire Department, Byron Fire Department, New Milford Fire Department, Ashton-Franklin Center Fire, Monroe Center Fire Department, DeKalb Fire Department, Shabbona Fire Department, Paw Paw Fire Protection District, Blackhawk Fire Protection District, Ogle County Emergency Management, Ogle County Animal Control, Illinois Department of Transportation, Flagg Township and the Illinois State Fire Marshal.

“You can’t overstate the importance of support from other agencies,” Sawlsville said. “It was cold and in the middle of the night and a lot of the people who came and helped are paid on-call. It’s not their career. They showed up when it was below zero in the middle of the night. We had tremendous support. I want to send heartfelt sympathy to the family of the deceased. It’s always a tragedy to have a loss like that.”