SMITHVILLE – A fire quickly swept through a Town of Smithville home Saturday, creating a pillar of black smoke that could been seen for miles.

A private fire alarm activation was triggered at the 346 Pollard Road home only moments before dispatchers received a 911 phone call from the property’s owner at 10:26 a.m., saying his in-laws’ residence and four-car garage were on fire.

“By the time Officer Rick Woerter from the Greene Fire Department arrived, the garage roof was already touching the ground,” said Chenango County Fire Coordinator Matthew L. Beckwith.

Beckwith said the garage and home were newly built and consisted of prefabricated Styrofoam-like panels surrounded by a wooden exterior, which was unlike any material he could recall in his 20-plus years of fire experience.

“I’m not sure what it exactly was, but I can tell you that whatever it was, the fire spread, very, very quickly, traveling from the garage to the family home and engulfing both, completely destroying everything inside the structures,” he said.