UPDATE - 10:25am:
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The former owner of a two-storey North Wagga home that was destroyed by fire on Friday morning has been brought to tears by the loss of family history.
Stephanie Oliver, who now lives in Old Junee, sold the Hampden Avenue house about seven years ago after her mother died.
"I watched my father build this house, I watched my mother dying in this house," she said.
"My heart breaks for [the owner] as he put a lot of work into the house."
Police, fire investigators and electricians attended the scene of the fire, which reduced one house to a charred frame and damaged the roof of a nearby smaller house.
Ceah Dix, who lives around the corner from affected properties, said the fire had taken hold quickly in the two-storey house.
"Somebody came and knocked at my window at about 1am," she said.
"People were saying a passing truck driver saw the fire and stopped."
Ms Dix said she felt sorry for the owner of the house and an elderly man next door who had to evacuate after the fire spread to his roof.
"I'm lucky the wind was blowing away from my house," she said.
"It was amazing how fast it happened. I went outside after I was woken up and within 15 minutes the two-storey house was completely on fire.
"The [firefighters] did a really good job in hosing it down."
EARLIER - 8am:
Just a skeleton remains of a North Wagga home after fire tore through it after midnight on Friday morning.
Four appliances and 20 firefighters spent 90 minutes bringing the fire under control at a two-storey house at 94 Hampden Avenue.
The resident at the house was away at the time and an elderly neighbour in a nearby cottage was able to get to safety.
Firefighters entered the cottage to extinguish a small fire in the roof that had spread across the property line from the two-storey house.
Fire and Rescue NSW Station 472 Turvey Park and Station 480 Wagga responded to the call at 12:45am.
Turvey Park Station Officer Chad Kennis told The Daily Advertiser that the house was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived on scene.
"The fire was fully involved on both stories, As we arrived there were flames coming out each side and through the roof," he said.
"The house is totally destroyed. There is very little left of that house. It was more of a defensive type of effort to put it out. We didn't have to make entry and we didn't go inside the house.
"There was no need. We were not going to save anything by doing that."
Mr Kennis said the house's male occupant was out of town when the fire started and there were no pets that firefighters were aware of.
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"There's a house at number 96 that is very close, a small cottage, there was an elderly gentleman there and he was out when we got there," he said.
"The fire did spread to his place as it was quite close to the two-storey house. We made entry to his place and the guys got into the roof space and put it out before it spread any further."
Mr Kennis said it took and hour and a half to bring the fire under control and about another hour and a half to extinguish all the hotspots.
The incident scene had been handed over to police to investigate the cause of the fire.