HIGHGATE, Vt. (WCAX) - Fire investigators are working to determine the cause of a massive fire that reduced a Highgate family’s home to rubble Thursday night.

One minute, a Highgate family was in their living room watching hockey. Next, their home was fully engulfed in flames.

“I sent my son and my dog over to my parents house and I came back and watched my dreams burn,” said Jesse Ploof, recounting the moments he came face to face with flames. “We got home, we cooked dinner, took showers and were watching TV on the couch and I heard the picture frame fall in the breezeway. And when I walked to look in the breezeway it was all flames.”

Ploof says he tried to fight the fire on his own using a garden hose, but it was already too late. “Get everybody out and try to save seven years of hard

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