Wareham and Onset Fire Department crews combated a massive house fire in the town’s Shangri-La neighborhood early Thursday morning. Authorities had been searching the destroyed home for one unaccounted for person after the blaze, but found nothing.

"No one was located inside the building,"  said Wareham Fire Department Acting Chief Pat Haskell. He declined to comment further on the person's identity or if they had been located elsewhere, saying the matter is currently under investigation.

Haskell said first responders received a 911 call at approximately 3 a.m. for the fire. Wareham Police officers, who were first on the scene, reported that a home at 36 Restful Lane was engulfed in flames. Fire crews arrived and battled the fire from the outside, unable to make entry into the home.

The State Fire Marshal’s office and Massachusetts State Police are trying to determine what caused the blaze.

“It’s under investigation right now,” Haskell said. “It’s likely going to be a long, drawn out process.”

Haskell noted that officials were unable to get close enough to the home to start investigating until 9 a.m. Construction crews worked Thursday morning to make the scene safe for investigators, tearing down portions of the two-story home, which was completely gutted.

Next door neighbor Linda Lukan said the fire’s roar woke up her husband, who then rousted Lukan.

“My husband heard it first, it sounded like rocks hitting the windows, a lot of cracking and popping,” said Lukan. “And the heat. Oh God, you couldn’t miss the heat.”

Lukan said flames towered over the home during the blaze and at one point Wareham Police said the couple may have to evacuate. Haskell noted that there was a “large volume of flames” when firefighters arrived on the scene.

Lukan, and another neighbor Elias Broufas, who lives across the street, said the home was unoccupied at the time. Both said a tree that fell on the home’s roof during a March 2 nor’easter forced town officials to condemn the building. Lukan said the tree was removed a few days before the fire, but the homeowner, listed as William Nazario according to state records, hadn’t moved back in yet.