DERRY | A single family home on Dolores Avenue was destroyed today when fire tore through the building.

Dennis Cote said his wife, Debra, emptied the ashes from the family's pellet stove around 10 a.m. and put them outside the back door of the home at 4 Dolores Avenue. An hour later, she noticed smoke and fire coming from the pile and called the Derry Fire Department.

It took firefighters about an hour to extinguish the blaze. No one was injured, according to Derry fire Chief George Klauber.

Smoke was still coming through a hole in the roof and all of the windows of the home more than an hour after firefighters began battling the fire.

Cote was at work in Woburn, Mass. when the fire began, but rushed home when he heard that his home of seven years was on fire. He stood in the street yesterday outside a perimeter of yellow tape with his wife quietly by his side as firefighters cleaned up their equipment.

Although the family has relatives and friends in the area, Cote said he doesn't know where they will stay.

The Route 28 Bypass was closed while firefighters from Derry, Auburn, Londonderry, Chester and Windham fought the fire. The Red Cross was also on hand to provide assistance to the Cote family and firefighters.