An inferno ripped through a three-story lakefront Hopatcong home Friday morning. Nobody was hurt, police said.

Click here for video of the fire.

The blaze began around 6 a.m., with flames tearing through the garage at 10 Pickerel Point Dr. and eventually burning through the roof, causing smoke to billow over Lake Hopatcong and surrounding homes. The fire was controlled a few hours later, but about all that remained of the century-old home was its charred stone frame.

Authorities are still investigating the cause of the blaze, which neighbor Bill Nagy said started with smoke around 5:30 a.m. and turned into a full fire after he heard a "ba-boom."

"Oh, man," he said. "There was a big plume of smoke, a big mushroom cloud. Firefighters were on the scene in 10 minutes. It had to be an oil tank or a car. We were just watching it burn and it was aglow. But all of a sudden, ba-boom."

Neighbor Marilyn Henshaw said she saw the flames through her kitchen window and called police around 6 a.m. Henshaw said the homeowner, Dan Loscano, was in Manhattan during the blaze.

Phil Verhalen watched the home burn and thought about his childhood.

Verhalen, 51, lived in the home for about 25 years. His parents, James and Florance, raised their son and his six siblings there after buying the property in 1950. Verhalen said his parents sold it to Loscano a few years ago and moved to Denville.

Verhalen heard about his childhood home going up in flames around 8 a.m. and left his job at Meineke in Ledgewood to watch it burn.

"Just memories," Verhalen said. "My parents raised seven kids in that house. Just wonderful Christmases and wonderful summer get-togethers after everyone had grown and brought their own kids back and everything. Just tons of memories. It's very sad to see."

The battle to control the blaze lasted about three hours. Emergency services from Hopatcong, Stanhope, Roxbury and Mount Arlington converged on the flames, which lit up the pre-dawn sky, sending thick smoke rumbling over homes.

The fire tore through the garage, where it left a vehicle charred, and continued through the house. Firemen eventually needed three hoses shooting wide streams of water in unison to suppress the inferno, which continued in spots through 10:30 a.m.

Hopatcong's police and fire marshal were still investigating the cause of the fire alongside the Sussex County Prosecutor's Office and fire marshal.

The blaze was the first for Hopatcong's new fire chief, Wade Crowley, who took over the post on Jan. 1.

Nobody was hurt in Hopatcong's last structure fire, which occurred in July.