AUBURN — Auburn firefighters managed to quench a Hatch Road fire in under 10 minutes Friday. 

The small, single-story home at 441 Hatch Road was unoccupied at 3:30 p.m., when the fire was first reported. Nobody was injured, but two cats died.

Auburn Battalion Chief Dean Milligan said the fire was called in by a neighbor and it appears to have started near the back of the house. Auburn fire officials and state fire marshals were investigating the blaze.

“I don’t know if it was inside or outside, but the area of origin was the back left hand corner,” he said.

Milligan said the cause of the fire was unknown as of Friday night.

“We are still trying to ask questions and figure out who was here, when they were here last and what they do: Do they smoke? Do they burn wood?,” Milligan said. “We have not been able to ask all that yet.”

Milligan said the fire did not appear to be suspicious.

“But we have a few questions for neighbors about vehicles that were in and out during the day,” Milligan said.

According to Auburn tax records, the home was owned by Elly Bennett, who died in 2011. Neighbors said her grandson, wife and children live there now.

It’s not the first time a tragedy struck the lot. A house was destroyed in an April 1999 fire after lightning struck a tree and jumped to the house.

Bennett, who’d lived in the house for 48 years, lost everything. Her Hatch Road neighbors built her a new house, using their labor and donated materials.