CEDAR FALLS - A Wednesday morning fire caused extensive damage to a home in North Cedar.

Firefighters were called to the Bob and Joan Babcock home at 1220 Western Ave. about 11 a.m.

Fire damaged the basement and spread to the attic, causing significant damage to both. Firefighters had to break through the western end of the roof to extinguish hot spots.

The Babcocks' home rests on high ground but is just blocks from homes that took heavy damage in the June flood.

"Now I know what they felt like," Bob Babcock said, as he watched firefighters knock out parts of his roof with chain saws and pickaxes.

Babcock was home at the time of the fire. When a smoke detector sounded, he said, he wasn't sure exactly what it was and first questioned whether the sound came from the television.

He went downstairs and discovered a basement room fully engulfed in flames.

Cedar Falls fire officials suspect the fire was caused by an electric iron that malfunctioned in the basement. Cedar Falls Utilities had to shut off natural gas to the entire block, restoring it once the fire was contained. CFU personnel went door to door to re-light pilot lights.

No one was injured in the fire.

The home had been remodeled in recent years, with a new detached garage added three years ago and exterior remodeling, including new windows, that was just completed a year ago.

"We just finished the house," a distraught Babcock said.

Several of those new windows were broken out or otherwise destroyed in the fire.

The new garage was not damaged in the fire, but Babcock said he was concerned about how his car, parked in a tuck-under garage, would survive.

Interim Cedar Falls Fire Chief Desi Duggan said the fire started in the basement and broke out two egress windows. The fire then migrated up the siding and entered the attic through soffits.

"It's all heavily smoke damaged, but no fire broke through to the first floor," Duggan said.

A natural gas regulator melted in the fire, providing more fuel, but Duggan said that wasn't a major contributor to fire damage at the house.

Contact Jon Ericson at (319) 291-1461 or jonathan.ericson@wcfcourier.com.