By Sarah Light, staff writer

MYRTLE &8212; The father of the family who lost their home in the house fire Saturday in London Township said Tuesday he wanted to thank those in the community who have lent the family personal support during the last few days.

&8220;We&8217;re kind of taking it a day at a time,&8221; said Frank Soukup, who together with his wife, Julie, owned the house at 88327 140th St. that was completely destroyed by fire during the weekend.

Soukup said the support received from family, friends, fire departments and the American Red Cross since the fire has been overwhelming.

&8220;Our family is just going through such a great ordeal right now,&8221; he said.

The Freeborn County Sheriff&8217;s Office received a call of the house fire at 4:45 p.m. Saturday.

Reports stated the blaze completely destroyed the home and its entire contents. No one was injured, including the two family dogs. The Soukup family was not at home at the time of fire, according to reports.

Doug Johnson, fire investigator for the Freeborn County Fire and Investigation Team, said the cause of the fire is still undetermined and actually may never be completely figured out.

&8220;It&8217;s still under investigation,&8221; Johnson said. &8220;But it might be one of those where we may not get a definite answer on what started it because there were a lot of probable causes.&8221;

This means there were a lot of explainable possibilities, he said, but he could not expand on what these possibilities were.

When he arrived at the scene, there were still a couple hot spots at the house, but for the most part the fire was out, Johnson said. He started the investigation right away, questioning witnesses, firefighters, deputies, the homeowners and others to try to gather as much information as possible.

The State Fire Marshall&8217;s Office was also called to the scene, Johnson noted. By law, this office is required by law to come in to the scene of a fire if there is a death or a large loss.

Other agencies responding to the fire were the London, Myrtle, Hayward, Glenville and Albert Lea township fire departments and Freeborn-Mower Cooperative Services, according to Sheriff&8217;s Office reports.

Julie is a teacher at Sumner Elementary School in Austin, and Frank is an advertising and marketing consultant for a variety of companies. The Soukups have four children. She wrote and he illustrated a children&8217;s book for the United Way of Freeborn County&8217;s yearly campaign last fall. The book was titled &8220;Kindness Is Contagious.&8221;